The average punter has been well and truly bamboozled by the mixed messages about the state of our economy. If this was the objective of Labor’s spin doctors when the American economy sneezed last year then they should be happy with the result.
We were told that Australia was facing the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. We told that we were in recession. We were told that we just missed out on a technical recession. We were told that we needed to spend to save our economy. Those who didn’t have enough to spend, and many of those who did, received cheques in the mail from the Labor Government. It was a bonanza!
Needless to say the Kevin Rudd’s popularity soared in the polls.
The NSW Labor Government, the worst in living memory, blamed the Global Financial Crisis for every problem it faced – congested roads, a broken down public transport system, a lack of hospital beds, gross incompetence in the public service, etc.
But now, according to the Prime Minister and his merry band of spin doctors, the recession is over. And they would have us believe it was their prudent economic management that allowed us to weather the storm!
The facts tell a different story. The cause of the Global Financial Crisis was the crash of American sub-prime mortgage schemes which accounted for 15 percent of all outstanding mortgages. In Australia only one percent of outstanding mortgages fell into this category thanks to the prudent financial management of the Howard Government.
But the most important legacy of the Howard Government was our national balance sheet. We had a couple of hundred million dollars in the bank and were free of debt.
Kevin Rudd’s spending since he got the keys to the Treasury would make Gough Whitlam blush. While he was telling us things were crook it was raining money in the form of a ‘stimulus package’. Many people who didn’t need the money got a cheque. Many schools that didn’t need an assembly hall got one anyway. Many students who didn’t need a computer now have two. Drunken sailors could not have splurged more in such a short period.
So is it the worst financial crisis in history? Well it’s certainly not as bad as the last time Labor was in power in the 1990s when unemployment was more than 10 percent and inflation was around 18 percent. Kev seems to have forgotten that!
Now the recession is over, according to Kev, it will be interesting to see who he blames for the inevitable rise in unemployment and bank interest rates due to the massive debt he has accumulated via his reckless ‘stimulus package’. Come in spinner!
Whether it was a recession or not, its killed consumerism forever. Now Kev’s bonuses have stopped coming there’s nothing to spend, and now we have to start to pay them back with interest.
Being underemployed stitches up the unemployment figures for the govt, unemployment is much much worse than this Govt is telling us.