Quoted from aquamonkey

What that Howard was not a good treasurer? Lucky he doesn't hold that position.....

L0L. Nice try, but the fact remains that the Liberals claim to be better economic managers is just delusional nonsense.

Quoted from cactus

Lets get the facts right, shall we girls.

Interest rates under Howard, as treasurer, got as high as 21.4 per cent in April 1982.

Interest rates peaked under Keating at just 18%.  By the time Howard won as PM, interest rates were well under control and at historic lows.  All that Howard/Costello have done is “preserve” these historic low rates they inherited from Hawke/Keating.

Isn’t the truth really, really, annoying?

Yes it is very annoying. They bought this point up on Insiders last Sunday, where in a survey 68% of people thought that interest rates were at 17% in 1996 when Howard took over, when in fact they were as low as they are now. Howard has managed a George Bush, where he had convinced 80% of the American people that Saddam Hussein was behind September 11 2001 attacks, without directly saying Saddam was.

In fact things have gotten worse under Howard, and he has squandered the economic positives started by Labor. Every single economic institute (including the RBA and Treasury), along with many of the biggest economic commentators, have the current boom starting as long as 16 years ago and as little as 14 years ago. Not a single one has it starting in March 1996, which is what Howard would have you believe happened and what he has convinced most of the Australian people was the start of the good times.

Fact is that by every measure the Howard government's economic management is very poor. It is the most wasteful government in our history, the highest taxing, the lowest spending in real terms, the most secretive ever, especially on their economic management, the largest bureaucracy ever and on every other front bar an economic boom that is just concentrated in two states because of resources, it is doing very poorly. Remove the resources from the equation and bring them back to pre-China/India/Pakistan levels, and our economy is in very poor shape with manufacturing having collapsed, innovation at extremely low levels and our future stuffed as our education levels are now at the lower end of the OECD.

Record homelessness, record mortgage foreclosures, record low productivity, record bankruptcies, highest debt, lowest education spending and outcomes, lowest R&D spending and outcomes, lowest infrastructure spending and outcomes, and just too many other factors of measurement to mention.

The only areas it has improved greatly are spending on government ads, Liberal party propaganda (using public funds) and secrecy, where it goes to great lengths and expense (using public funds) to stop the public from finding out what the real situation and figures are.

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As an aside notice the flooding of government ads in the media at them moment. $200 million dollars of your money being wasted as propaganda for the Liberal party. This is a travesty in anyone's book and I really hope it backfires as I can't believe that many Australians cannot see through to what these ads really are.

Quoted from cactus

L0L. Nice try, but the fact remains that the Liberals claim to be better economic managers is just delusional nonsense.

mmmm well do a comparison to how well the ALP are doing with NSW economy, highest taxing state, you'd expect all that money to be well spent

The blame the States thing has been well and truly exposed. The Federal government is the highest revenue raiser in history because of its high taxes and the resources boom, yet it puts the lowest share in 30 years back to the states, 39%.

Queensland and WA only do well because of resources, all the other States are struggling and they are the ones who get the lowest share, with Victoria and NSW subsidising Qld and WA even though the two latter states are getting record amounts of money through the resources boom.

NSW has to tax high to make up for the Federal government funding shortfall and NSW has always stated it could substantially cut taxes if the Feds gave them the full amount of the allocation they deserve and if they didn't have to subsidise Qld and WA.

Just one more thing to add to the list of the Howard government being very poor economic managers, they can't even allocate decent amounts of monies to the States nor in the correct proportions as each State deserves.

Quoted from boomslanger

Queensland and WA only do well because of resources, all the other States are struggling

This is an important point conveniently ignored by our sycophantic government.

To validate the rhetoric of Howard’s claims on economic management one only needs to take Qld and WA out of the equation.  What you see under the camouflage of a resources boom is the real state of affairs.  Without the resources boom muddying clear economic thinking, you see record low full-time employment, a frightening shrinkage of our manufacturing and IT industries topped off with the most unaffordable housing in our short federal history.

The media, for whatever reason, will not let Howard get away with such dishonest claims this time around.

Quoted from boomslanger

Yes it is very annoying. They bought this point up on Insiders last Sunday, where in a survey 68% of people thought that interest rates were at 17% in 1996 when Howard took over, when in fact they were as low as they are now. Howard has managed a George Bush, where he had convinced 80% of the American people that Saddam Hussein was behind September 11 2001 attacks, without directly saying Saddam was.

What this Government is better than Labor at is spin and deceit. It's very easy for them to publicise interest rates under Labor of 17% which was 18 years ago, and write off interest rates under Liberal of 21% which was 25 years ago. They exploit the unease amongst the public who were hit hard by high interest rates under Labor, the higher interest rates under Liberal 25 years ago are all but forgotten.

Is Howard saying "interest rates under a Coalition Government will always be lower than under Labor" one of the most ridiculous and baseless things you've ever heard?? This is already a lie, just look at 1982.

Quoted from boomslanger

Fact is that by every measure the Howard government's economic management is very poor.
...
Record homelessness, record mortgage foreclosures, record low productivity, record bankruptcies, highest debt, lowest education spending and outcomes, lowest R&D spending and outcomes, lowest infrastructure spending and outcomes, and just too many other factors of measurement to mention.

It's sad the average voter cannot see past their own mortgage to see what a disaster this Government really is.

Quoted from boomslanger

As an aside notice the flooding of government ads in the media at them moment. $200 million dollars of your money being wasted as propaganda for the Liberal party. This is a travesty in anyone's book and I really hope it backfires as I can't believe that many Australians cannot see through to what these ads really are.

And they have the nerve to start a fear campaign over the unions anti-IR advertising.

Well.... as we all know by now, unless we are stranded in the Antarctic, Keven Rudd is not just leader of the ALP but the Prime Minister of Australia. Congratulations Kevin 07!

We're getting a lot of international interest.  The election was front page on the BBC news website and has been foremost in US news.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7111479.stm

Maybe he said sorry to the wrong people....? It's certainly time for him to put new batteries in the perception filter

Quoted Text

Cuts leave Rudd's image in tatters
THE reality of being a "fiscal conservative" in government has created the first real criticism and bad publicity for Kevin Rudd and his team in three months.

Rudd ran television advertisements while in Opposition declaring he was a fiscal conservative. The ads were effective and worked.

But rhetoric from Opposition is assuming an entirely different character in the cold light of government. The limits on any government's ability to keep down inflation, interest rates and living costs make it clear it's easier to be a fiscal conservative in Opposition.

As Opposition leader, Rudd also used the fantasy of "Brutopia" to accuse John Howard of being mean and uncaring. Rudd was seen as the fiscal conservative with compassion.

But the razor gang, proposed to give substance to the claim for fiscal conservatism, has started to slash programs and it is Rudd's caring and compassionate image that is bleeding.

Carers are set to lose payments in the short term, in the name of cost-cutting to reduce government spending and create an even bigger budget surplus to take pressure off inflation and interest rates in the long term.

It's a tough call. The chronically ill, the dying and disabled cared for at home are not only in genuine need but also keep pressure off the health system. These decisions are obviously distressing Jenny Macklin.

Justification for the payment cuts to some of the most stressed and distressed Australians based on them being a "one off" are exactly the grounds Labor in Opposition used to attack the Howard government over the ending of dental care programs.

This week there has also been government approval for rises in private health insurance premiums beyond the inflation rate despite Nicola Roxon's demands from opposition that the government not approve such increases.

And the banks continued this week to raise interest rates for household mortgages beyond the Reserve Bank's official rate rises despite Government's calls for them to consider homebuyers.

Reality is mugging rhetoric, and the pressure is about to intensify on Rudd to maintain the line on economic management that helped him win the election.