The Lucky Country revisited

If we add to this catalogue the unnecessary cost of the ill-fated Iraqi War and the highly debatable value of the US Free Trade Agreement it is laughable to speak of sound economic management.

Thanks heavens that the Reserve Bank has carefully handled the interest rate levels, independently from the Howard Government.

Luckily, the resources boom, including the exports of liquid gas to China and yellow cake to Russia and, probably India, have and will cushion and hide economic weaknesses. This is largely the result of strongly growing foreign demand. Furthermore, it is widely recognised that the economic management by the ALP in the early 1990s provided much of the groundwork on which economic progress could be built.

It is the Lucky Country revisited but we shall have to listen a few more weeks to the nonsense that the Rudd-led Opposition “lacks experience”. This is a silly claim. No Opposition is in government. It is deliberately kept away from government in the Westminster system. But at least it affords Opposition members the opportunity to figure how not to manage the country and may alert them to what is required to avert the disaster which could well be the Howard’s Government legacy.