Funny that, The Age website this morning has headlines of "PM flunks rates test" and "Howard's tax splurge". The ABC site has "Labor seizes on Howard's interest rate gaffe." Accentuate the negative is clearly The Age's theme.
And on Sunrise this morning, a "phone in poll" indicated strong support for better services rather than tax cuts. ( I can't find a link, but it was something like 80/20 split, which indicates to me that maybe Labor or the unions is getting organised faster with these things.) Yet there seem to be very economists who would call the tax plans at all irresponsible. (News.com on line poll asks the same question and at least has a 50/50 response.)
What's the bet that those who are saying "better services" are the same ones who are whinging about the cost of living increasing (even though official inflation is still quite modest). Presumably, they also think that the government keeping high surpluses year after year is going to help them afford the higher costs of petrol and vegetables.
No wonder Howard is getting frustrated.
Howard, like Bob Hawke before him, has taken the charitable view that the Australian electorate generally makes the right call when voting. It seems to me that this is one election where the collective wisdom of the masses has gone walkabout, and is showing no signs of returning anytime soon.
3 comments:
Steven
I can see the politics in the announcement but not economic sense.
Isn't this designed to ensure higher interest rates in the future as the economy overheats. Or is this stimulus needed because the economy isn't as strong as they suggest.
It is very confusing really unless viewed as cynical politics. It will be hard to see how any Labor policies will look outlandish after this.
Cheers
and BTW 6 weeks is far too long for an election campaign - I'm bored rigid already!
Geoff
Geoff, seems to me there is a distinct lack of economists rushing out to condemn the tax cuts due to inflationary fears; and the reason (as far as I can tell) is because of their gradual introduction. It seems likely to me that the Labor response will be to criticise them for proportionally giving more cuts to the higher end (although I am not even sure how true that is when everything is taken into account)rather than to criticise for inflationary fears.
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