Paul Keating Bringing Home The Bacon

[dlan1500]

The Hawke / Keating government reforms of the 80s and 90s set the country up for financial successfor the last 20 years. We need another government like this now to make reforms for the next 20 years.

[carlosantuckwell]

Megalomaniac Keating has disabled comments on his clip against Tony Abbott.

Obviously he is scared about what people might post to his character-assassination clip.

No debate on the issues of the Paid-Licences-To-Pollute (Carbon-tax - the price of which is to be set by the Stock Market! - some "Labor" party!), no debate, just character-assassination - like some Barrister.

The ALP went pro-Corporate from the time of Hawke on. Aussie workers are sucked in by a name. Carbon Tax = Labor GST.

[DMAN123223]

@carlosantuckwell 1.) Paul Keeting doesn't upload videos.

2.) There are several copies of that video, you can comment on the other ones.

[wickedguy333]

How many elections did Keating win as PM ? He was about as good as Kevin Rudd haha

[EnarPilrith1]

@wickedguy333 hahahaha Labor were in longer than that fruit Howard hahahaha.

[blueyisblue1]

Keating = Legend

[Soundgarden8497]

bigredtaxi is a fucking moron ... is the bigredtaxi a metaphor for china? all the chinese swamping us like they've started to bigtime under gillard because her border policy doesn't work at all? the labor government have ALWAYS fucked australia over. wake up people. and the greens are just as bad

[redrooster241]

@Soundgarden8497 gilliard just wants to stay as pm. shes just a puppet while the greens are actually controlling the whole thing. carbon tax- by greens. australia politics is not about the people's choice anymore. just fucking greed and power and making stupid shitty decisions.

[Soundgarden8497]

@redrooster241 the disturbing thing is the number of people who would still vote for her after all the failures, there's clearly a huge number of people who either have zero education or they want this country to be taken over.

[redrooster241]

@Soundgarden8497 and thats how people get brainwashed

[wasload1]

True Knob

[peteylalor]

And apparently Labor Governments are economically unreliable...

[ilikevines]

gotta love his colourful expressions

[Sopez1]

Banana Republic. Nice.

[danielmy08]

Fitting that a pig of a man would boast of bringing home the bacon.

[tgree89]

Workchoices, draconian terrorist laws (which can literally be interpreted as someone disagreeing with the government of the day), a biased high court, he directly attacked the trade unions (yes for some average working people that is a bad thing), sold telstra for a shitty price and he could of at least kept the infrastructure in public hands (which would have made a public broadband system allot easier) ,

[tgree89]

he diluted the republican debate, pushed a far more hard line refugee policy than Keating (can you remember his plan to intercept boats of refugees and detain them on big cruisers, even members of his party with a conscious voted against it). mate the list can go on, but i won't bother, I've seen you on other clips defending the toxicity he polluted throughout the Australian society, some people don't buy into it, but by all means do, but the man was voted out of his electorate.

[liber8me]

the you dont understand is that economy is about balance. interest rates are down to try and stimulate the economy. interest rates go up to record highs when the governent goes deep into debt and is spending reckless. that is labors trademark.

[vemugu61]

@liber8me

I don't think you understand. The Libs have severely unbalanced our economy by failing to save during the mining boom. They squibbed on their 96 promise to take super to 15%: wasted years which could have balanced out our current account deficit, now a dangerously high $600 mill. The only thing they did with super was to say if you've got a spare mill in cash you can put that in super tax free, but for the average working family, you're stuck on 9% because they want cash for tax cuts

[liber8me]

firstly why is it the government's duty to tell people when they can or cannot borrow money? people are intelligent and should be free to pursue their own interests without a government monopoly forcing them to do things.

the only debt the government should be responsible for is its OWN. you say the liberals have severely unbalanced the economy, no they left labor one of the strongest economies in the developed world. without the liberals economy we would have had the same recession as everyone

[vemugu61]

By heating the economy with short term populist tax cutting you over heated the economy by annually spending surpluses of 1%, NOWHERE NEAR enough savings to balance out the rapidly rising foreign debt. We could completely safeguard ourselves against speculation on our currency by taking savings to 15% of wages which would balance our big four banks propensity to borrow in polluted foreign markets. .

[vemugu61]

And moreover, the strength of our economy is down to the Keating structural changes. They had the political vision to wear the short term political pain, something JWH would never do. Enterprise bargaining, preventing wage runs on the economy, super - providing everyone with the money to retire with dignity while creating a cyclical conduit of investment wealth running from the worker to the investment industry, via infrastructure and programs such as medicare back to REAL wealth of households.

[vemugu61]

And I could go on and on, which I will if you keep coming back with this tawdry stuff about the Liberal party being great economic heroes. They were decent managers, nothing more. Think objectively for a moment: in ten years, what did they ever do? Name one major structural economic risk they took for the betterment of the majority of people? And don't say the GST (which I say was a good thing too) because it isn't a behavior changing system. Howard and Costello - complete lightweights

[liber8me]

keating's vision and political pain? keating was the one who considered gst but didnt have the balls to implement it because he knew they'd lose an election on it. it was much easier to use scare tactics against "fightback!" than to come up with genuine reforms of their own. keatings management of the economy came down to one thing - breaking the back of inflation. did he did it by cutting spending? no, he did it by raising interest rates to the level where they led to recession.

[liber8me]

short term populist tax cutting? you mean giving money back to the people who earned it because the economy was doing so well. and dont be hypocritical, labor did exactly the same thing up to the 1993 election when keating promised it during the election campaign. but guess what? he'd sent the nation so broke they couldnt afford to do it.

[bigredtaxi]

Keating never sent the country broke, haha, it was just a recession. Under keating, we were the fastest growing economy in the developed world.

Keatings economic reforms brought this country into the 'first world', and without them, we would not be nearly as successful as we are today.

[liber8me]

hawke and keating's bright idea for wages was to centrally index rises according to inflation. that was one of the most incredibly stupid economic policies. however on the whole i liked the neoliberal reforms of keating and hawke. i find it a little amusing how a leftwing party deviated and went to the right, doing things that the liberals couldn't have without being thrown out of office.

[Kirkzzy]

@bigredtaxi Yes people please stop blaming governments for recessions and economic downturns.... when it is a fucking GLOBAL recession. Please don't be so narrow minded.

[Redcarpet01]

@bigredtaxi For the benefit of the rich, yeah.

[Ken0009100]

@bigredtaxi TRUE

[breadbaker226]

@bigredtaxi He was good as a treasurer (because of Hawkey) ,but a shit arrogant prick as PM. All he cared for was his Italian Suits and his Clocks...

[Soundgarden8497]

@bigredtaxi you're hallucinating

[xalstarx]

@bigredtaxi Here, here! It's ridiculous how the blue ribbon folk are so biased in suggesting that Keating put the economy into debt. Almost thought they blame him and that government for a world wide recession. Just laughable. Then Peter Cost-a-lot gets all the credit for being a brilliant treasurer for bringing upon a budget surplus which was attributed by the Howard and co privatising public assetts. Good old short-term fix solutions by a short-sighted Liberal government. Praise the Simpletons

[Mollarooza]

@liber8me It would actually be in the interest of people if the government did limit the debt.

Think about it the less access they have to it the cheaper the house, isnt that a good thing?

[liber8me]

so the government should tell people whether they should be allowed to own a house then?

you want a government that will meddle in the free market and tell banks whether or not they are allowed to loan money to people? I think the banks know a lot more about the security of their loans than any government agency.

any regulation slapped on borrowing by the government would hurt the economy and growth badly.

[bigredtaxi]

Free markets do not 'really' exist, and nor should they. The current GFC shows plenty of evidence to support that, as so many major financial institutions took stupid risks, knowing that the US government would bail them out if they failed.

Like it or not, government regulation (at least to some extent) is required to keep things on an even keel.

[liber8me]

wait, on one hand you just said free markets did not exist, then you just said they're responsible for the GFC.

you want to know what was responsible for the GFC? government regulation. the government had passed a law in the US forcing banks to give loans to people who obviously could not afford them. want to know why? because the government wanted to look "caring" by letting poor people afford homes. the GFC was caused by absurd regulations, not a lack of them.

[bigredtaxi]

A completely free market, means no regulation at all (with one or two exceptions for serious crimes like Fraud). Every major economy has some form of government regulation, hence my previous statement.

You are kidding yourself if you think the GFC was caused by a lack of regulation, and it shows a lack of understanding to say such a thing.

If you go and read the specific legislation that you THINK made US banks hand out credit to those who cannot pay it back, then you will see what i mean.

[AussiePolitics]

@bigredtaxi liber8me didnt say that there has been a completely free market, however you can compare the efficencies of the markets that are freer in comparison to others.

by the way, look up the lovely law called the community investment acted. do you know what it did? unless banks in america gave 50% of their loans to lower income people, then the government restricted their ability to expand - for instance they would not be able to open a new branch.

[bigredtaxi]

@AussiePolitics Do you mean the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act)? If so, you should probably look into it. I know a good deal about it, enough to know that it was not responsible for the GFC, which most economists and independant bodies have already concluded.

Most of the 'sub-prime' loans which ended up in default, were not even drawn by institutions that the CRA regulates, meaning the claim is baseless. The market even preferred CRA loans, as they were typically safer.

[AussiePolitics]

@bigredtaxi first of all fannie and freddie were affected by it - which you neglected to mention. they were the ones who really set off this shitstorm. secondly explain to me why a law forcing banks to make 50% of their loans to people on a lower income is preferred by the market and 'safer'? this law deliberately distorted the free market to give houses to people who lacked the means to pay for them.

oh and the CRA is just one of the regualtory mistakes the US made.

[bigredtaxi]

@AussiePolitics First of all, I did not say I was in favour of the law. Secondly, regardless of what fannie and freddie did, it does not change the fact that the majority of bad loans were approved by companies not under regulated by the CRA, which means it was not the main problem (thus you are wrong in saying it was).

Also, regardless of the CRA, the banks are required to ensure there is an adequate servicing capacity for the loan.

[AussiePolitics]

@bigredtaxi the fact is that fannie and freddie were among the biggest banks in the world and their collapse really created this disaster. they were regulated by the GFC which if you speak to any economist you would know was enacted because the government though 'aw too many poor people cant afford houses, lets force banks to give them loans. what's the worse that could happen from loaning money to those who can't afford it.'

[bigredtaxi]

@AussiePolitics

The law itself was not what made the market think the loans to be safer, but that is how it turned out. I made this point to again re-iterate the fact that the CRA was not the leading problem

[AussiePolitics]

@bigredtaxi the CRA was not the leading problem but it was one of the problems that led to the GFC. a bigger problem would have been the federal reserves weak monetary policy where they artificially kept interest rates so low that at one point in 03 interest rates were effectively negative.

you also have to remember that fannie and freddie were basically a perversion of public/state ownership which meant they basically got away with lying and pretending they were showing profits.

[bigredtaxi]

@AussiePolitics Before we go any further debating this, please go and read why the law was implemented.

[AussiePolitics]

@bigredtaxi fannie and freddie basically stated that they wanted to buy up all the subprime or Alt-A mortgages mortgages they could get and the market responded - subprime mortgages went from 8% in 03 to 20% by 06. the reason why you said the market 'preferred' these kinds of loans because the banks KNEW they could sell them to fannie and freddie.

[liber8me]

keating did nothing to prevent the worst recession in 60 years hitting us.

or relieve the pressure on people with his record high interest rates.

at least people had a job and a home under howard

[liber8me]

lets play name that political party!

which party gave us high debt

record high interest rates

and the worst recession since the great depression?

DUH! THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY!

WHAT A LEGACY!!!!

[tgree89]

It was John Howard as treasurer

[liber8me]

he never gave us anything as bad as the keating years

[Mollarooza]

lets play name the political Party!

Which party gave us the highest house prices Liberal party

Which party made it easy for investors to rip off Fist home buyers Liberal Party Duh

[liber8me]

actually it would probably be the labor party since house prices rose by 56% between 1987 and 1989. the only reason people think they were cheaper under labor was because there was such a massive correction during the "recession we had to have"

oh and the state labor governments have been a disgrace not releasing enough land for home buyers which inflated the price - the law of supply and demand aint hard to understand.

[liber8me]

lol mate the only thing keatings going to remembered for is an arrogant fool who have us record high interest rates and the worst recession since the great depression

[liber8me]

ah yes, changing the subject.

it was actually the keating years which were the failure. nothing but sustained record interest rate rises until the whole thing came crashing down.

labor was a failure.

the howard years gave people low interest rates, high growth and NO RECESSION.

illegal wars? says who? who makes the laws to say that a law is legal?

besides, everyone knows labor would have done the same thing - even UK labour did it.

[nudenuts]

Keating has never gotten over the fact that John Howard kicked his arse bigtime..This fucker left us with a $96 000 000 000 debt...congratulations John Howard for your years in putting Australia's interests at No. 1

[171277]

what this video talks about the surplus. So Keating did give us a suplus. John Howard under Fraser left labour with a $10 billion defeict and debt just as bad as Keating did in 1996, Keating left austraila in econ growth and unemployment was coming down.

[TheGoodnessIsGood]

They can only do what they are told, and play the game by the given, assume and unassumed rules. The reserve bankers and those behind them pull the strings. Why in Australia with a supposedly sovereign government do we pay interest to a private banking cartel? Why don't we just print the money for ourselves for free and circulate it based on real wealth. That is Austrian economics like the American Ron Paul talks about, and it leads to sound, stable economies that can't be manipulated easily .

[conswalo]

Howard did well????

Is that why we are in the biggest financial crisis ever, possibly a depression? After 10 year of him?

[nudenuts]

Surely you are not blaming the Global financial crisis on John Howard?? Look at the Kpi's Howard left us with. Thank God Howard and Costello left the State of our economy in as robust a position as they did ! Now, take a look at Kevin 747 now...talking down our position to make himself look good. Money hand outs and spending like drunken sailors ! Whats new..this is what ALP goverments do best i.e FUCK economies...Look at the Sates..I thought wall to wall ALP was going to fix everything hahahaa

[mrkirb]

Howard didn't create the financial crisis, and the previous government has left Australia well placed to cope with the approaching storm. Notice that no Australian banks have collapsed, and that our government has inherited the surplus its using to stimulate the economy.

[imlay1992]

The main reason the economy is so strong + no banks collapsed is cause of the guy talking on the screen up there ^^^^

[liber8me]

lol you sad brainwahed ALP stooge. all economics agree that the australian economy was the strongest of any in the world going into this crisis. it helps when your government has a surplus to stimulate the economy. look at britain. after 12yrs of the labour party they have 17 thousand pounds of debt for every single man, woman and child in the nation

[imlay1992]

as my previous comment describes... and that if there was such a huge pile of money coming in and it was staying as a surplus, whats that mean - NO INVESTMENT IN THE COUNTRY for the past 12 years? and those huge figures were relying on the mining boom that has basically gone and been done, just as Rudd said in lead up to the election...

[liber8me]

no it means howard actually spent the money where it was needed.

the state governments had more money then ever before because of the boom - queensland was at the heart of it taxing the mining companies billions.

howards investment was that he didnt grind the nation into the ground with the worst continual interest rate rises and recession since the great depression

[ihateskirts]

john howard did nothing but bitch and whine about the labor party(something he did for decades before), create GST, lie to australia, be as racist as he could be to anyone who wasn't anglo saxon and just did a all round bad job. Even as a kid, i could tell he was completly untrustable. If you didn't notice, when Rudd won the election, they didn't just kick Howard out of his office but out the business all togeher, they couldn't stand him any longer.

[nudenuts]

All round bad job hey? Record low unemployment, low inflation, zero Government debt when he inherited a 96000000000 ALP deficit. Stopped the despicable people smuggling racket in its tracks ( which is ramping up again now on Ashmore under Rudd ) stood side by side our great Allies in the USA to free Iraq from the tyrant in Saddam Hussein ( well done Iraqis in your peaceful provincial elections last weekend..but you will not hear the feral left thanking Bush and Blair )Thanks Johnny-the best yet!

[quinbrady]

wow nudenuts can master "ignorant" and "insulting" she/he only needs to complete "insignificant" and she/he'd have the full JWH set of "i"'s

[bigredtaxi]

@nudenuts What have you been smoking? The Howard years can be best described as the sale of assets, minimal infrastructure investment and a decreasing standard of living. As for illegal immigration, the 2 record years for the most number of boats were in the middle of his time as PM.

[AussiePolitics]

@bigredtaxi first of all labor also sold off assets as well during their time in office so dont pretend its just the libs. qantas and the comm bank were sold despite ALP promises to the contrary. decreased standard of living? LOL after almost 20 years of growth in the economy how you can accuse either side over that period of 'decreasing' living standards is beyond me.

[bigredtaxi]

@AussiePolitics most governments have sold off assets, I agree. However, none to the extent that the Howard Gov did.

As for living standards (which is NOT a direct link to the economy), go an look it up. Australia slipped several places during Howards time in office, so it is hardly debatable.

[AussiePolitics]

@bigredtaxi actually I say it would have to be pretty even actually. qantas and the commonwealth bank were pretty damn massive. beside what business does the government have running companies anyway? in china the gov has been allowing increased privatisation for decades because the public companies were either making a loss and being a burden for taxpayers or just barely turning a profit.

and im sure that I can find a list of people who were a lot worse off under labor in the 90s as well.

[AkrayBothorda]

@AussiePolitics Telstra was already making enough profit to pay for its buying price within ten years, profit that has yet to be equalled post privitisation. Maybe Howard wanted the cash up front because he didn't realise he'd be around that long. Just a possibility.

[AussiePolitics]

@AkrayBothorda you're confusing correlation with causation. in the past few years testra has had many new competitors enter the market - its not as strong a monopoly as it once had and its been butchered up by government regulation. now i am not saying regulating it is a bad thing, because we'd be stuffed if they didnt, but its kind of hard to make record profits when the government forces you to rent out your lines very cheaply to your competitors

[breadbaker226]

@bigredtaxi Howard sold off Telstra, then tried to wreck it, but the ALP sold off the Commwealth Bank... is that correct?

[bigredtaxi]

@nudenuts RE the Iraq war, you should go an do some research on that. The Iraq invasion and war has killed more people than Saddam did, and ever would. It is beyond pathetic that someone like you would support to loss of so many innocent lives, just to prove a cheap political point. And the fact that you have to tell lies to make your point, should surely convince you that you are wrong in the first place.

[timcmaeder]

haven't you figured it out - keating is despised even in the labor party so who would be putting up these vids and complimentary comments on keating? no one but the person who loves keating more than any human being on the face of the earth - keating himself he's got fuck all to do all day living in a wealthy suburb of sydney living off his big pension thanks to you dumb arse tax payers and that pig farm which has got to be the most questionable deal outside of his french clock sales

[anoma123]

Looks like we are going back to the disasterous days of Keating again. Already into deficit after Howard fixed the $96,000,000,000 mess left by the incompetent Keating.

Now it is Rudds turn to make a mess of it. Let's hope the next Liberal government will be able to fix it again.

[171277]

. Rudd was not even in the labour party during this time he was a coutnry party/National party supporter when he grew up. ALong with julia gilliard and Wayne swan they all joined the party over 1996. PM Rudd has a successful mulitmillion dollar compnay with his wife, surely he would be able to manage the ecnomony and keep the his compnay thriving.

[orderinchaos]

That wouldn't explain the fact that he joined the ALP at age 15 in 1972, that he was a staffer in the Goss government in QLD from 1989 to 1995, or that he ran for the seat he now holds in 1996 (but narrowly lost to a Liberal). Yes, they were all elected to Federal Parliament after 1996, but all of them had long careers in the ALP prior to their election.

[171277]

At least the pig farm makes money. Maybe John Howard can do work there.

[stabilizer25]

SCHWANZKUSS HAVE AN ORIGINAL THOUGHT

[cwegers]

Ha ha ha.....dickhead!

[Ikazi]

He brought home the bacon, get Keating back into Parliament.

[0MGS0S]

Keating will always be a pompous swine.

[camerondavo]

If only it could have been his last budget would have done everyone a favour.

[germanicelt]

Did he say that Australia was successfully emerging from its most servere economic crisis in a generation! I assume this was 1988. Well we all know what came after that - "this is the recession that Australia had to have". He was probably just dressing it up in '88.

[justwatch000]

the hewson election was the easiest because the economy was very low

[vl0007]

Yeas... Labor fixing the Libs screw ups... And it starts again in 2007... Hopefully it wont be as bad as Johnny left it back in the 80's.

[germanicelt]

You delude yourself.

[samtheband]

It totally makes me furious to hear some of the Pro-Liberal anti Paul Keating ranting that is going on here. I can't believe how stupid some people are. If I had a gun, I would fucking SHOOT JOHN HOWARD. He is probably the worst Australian EVER.

[dx6789]

And you are a faggot??

[samtheband]

why? are you interested? hahahahah you are laughable mate.

[soultitude]

"He is probably the worst Australian EVER"

Yet he has served as PM of Australia for the past 11 and a half years.

[samtheband]

Hey, I can't be held responsible if morons vote for him. Bush has been the president for ages, and he's a fuckwit too. So don't lecture me.

[bringyagrogalong]

soultitude (2 months ago

"He is probably the worst Australian EVER"

Yet he has served as PM of Australia for the past 11 and a half years.

And he's only the second serving PM to be slung out of his seat. lol

And the Party he led suffered the third worst electoral defeat in history.

I guess history will judge him accordingly.

[needlenardlenoo]

Don't you just love the measured responses from the extreme left? I'm no Howard fan, but this kind of post just reminds me why myself (and the majority of Australians) are swinging voters and hold no allegiance to any political party...

[wheelygood9]

As a pom, I cannot understand why Australians could not see the greatness of Paul Keating. Certainly the finest ever Aussie PM and rhetorical genius. This current fellow, Howard or whatever he's called, is a toady on the world stage and I hope you lads and lasses kick his arse out today. Bring back Keating! He always spoke from the heart.

[151607]

Shut up you Pom you have no idea about this great countries politics. Keating was a prick "the recession we had to have" what a joke. It's Poms like you who make me think maybe a republic isn't such a bad idea. Your lucky we love the queen or we would become a republic.

[learnrv]

lol we love the queen

[needlenardlenoo]

With his foot in his mouth...

[AussiePolitics]

@wheelygood9 first of almost everything that labor did economically to reform the economy was done under hawke, not keating. secondly, he was only pm for 5 years and he didnt do particularly much during that time except become one of the most hated pms in our history.

[jumpnjza2]

LABOR!!!...keating rocks...

[66crackers]

All you Keating sympathisers crack me up! He's nothing more than a bitter, twisted foul-mouthed failure!

He only won one election in his own right before Howard obliterated the arrogant fool; a defeat from which Keating has never recovered, typified by his continued bile and vitriole he directs at John Howard.

Howard is a statesman, a true gentleman and a fine PM. Put aside your bias and stop idolising a failure of a man in Paul Keating.

[Liquidicespace]

Why do people call themselves crackers? As far as I know, it's racist scums in America who hate the Black population who would use the name cracker. Anywho... Well, Keating, Howard, Rudd... I'll choose Keating any day.

[tribey]

This is easily the most laughably ignorant comment I've ever read on YouTube. Where did you learn about Paul Keating, John Howard and their achievements and legacies?

"He only won one election LOL OMG!!" sums up just how pitiful your knowledge is.

[Hoju001]

John Howard won elections on account of him being a filthy lying rodent, nothing more

[0MGS0S]

Your delusional.

[vinnyd91]

You're

[Ikazi]

Be thankful he used capitalization and a full stop.

[0MGS0S]

your write

[vinnyd91]

I always am.

[needlenardlenoo]

ha, and Keating wasn't?

He's a bitter and twisted old man with sour grapes to boot. The more he makes a fool of himself, the more he reminds the Australian public why they didn't vote for him and Howard was the better option.

[stagman21]

Grow up, champ.  Every politician goes through a cycle, and Howard was thumped by Rudd. Fact is, and this might hurt a bit, Keating seems to be enduring as a commentator who people want to hear from. Time will tell whether JW Howard has the same impact. You see bitter and twisted, I see real passion for the country and where it is headed.

[needlenardlenoo]

Grow up? Where's that observation come into it?I'm probably far older than you and I know sour grapes when i see it,Keating has it all over his miserable face!'Commenator',ha, he's a bitter man who launches into attack on anyone every chance he gets.His own party is embaressed about him, just look at their comments each time after an attack.I couldnt care less about Howard.But Keating is just a sad joke!This will be hard for you,but let it go,he's a spent force,he's not coming back!

[jayeradasich]

the best bit of work Keating ever did was the fabulous knife in the back of Bob Hawke effectively ruining Hawke's career making Hawke look a total fool in the process

[171277]

Why do you not meniton the great reforms such as the accord and buget surplus.

[uraniumdeath]

Howard has no desire to comment on politics.

He is not half as intrusive as Keating is, nor as obnoxious.

They're different people entirely.

[Ken0009100]

@Hoju001 Howard could not be a Professor of Economics to be Liberal leader and he lied about not bringing in the GST (GOODS AND SERVICE TAX) which might have mislead voters in 1996.

[AussiePolitics]

@Ken0009100 actually he didnt bring the tax in when he was elected in 1996. he went to the 1998 election saying he had changed his mind and looking for a mandate. or are politicians not allowed to change their minds and go back to the electorate to ask for a mandate to make a change?

[Ken0009100]

@AussiePolitics Oh well, he said in 1997 it may be brought in and considering that may have been one the reasons in 1996 Keating went out, If the others in 1996 knew Howard would bring in the GST it may have gone different. In the 1993 election Dr Hewson the Liberal leader tried to bring it in and he lost and it is suggested he lost because of the Birthday cake interview.

[AussiePolitics]

hewson lost it because keating realised he could use a fear campaign against the very tax he had proposed in 1985. he was an utter hypocrite. furthermore hewsons tax was a lot more complex than howards, which made it extremely difficult to explain to the electorate.

so what you're saying is no matter WHAT the circumstances a leader is never allowed to change is mind and go back to the electorate for a mandate? you know there's a reason a gst is a good idea and why labor never got rid of it

[Ken0009100]

@AussiePolitics I believe the GST is a good thing and perhaps your right, it is just Howard has a problem with saying something and not doing it, like he did with Mr Costello he said he would retire after two terms but ended up staying for the four terms.

[AussiePolitics]

@Ken0009100 if howard had gotten elected in 1996 and immediately brought in a GST i would be the first one screaming he was a scumbag. the fact that he was honest enough to go back to the electorate and say he had changed his mind is something pretty bloody rare in a politician. paul keating in 1993 promised huge tax cuts and suddenly when he unexpectedly won he realised the nation couldnt afford it. now i didnt see him going back for a new vote on the issue

[breadbaker226]

@AussiePolitics Better than Juliar Gillard and her .."No Carbon Tax under any Government she leads" statement

[AussiePolitics]

@breadbaker226 I know, I was complementing howard

[breadbaker226]

@AussiePolitics I know.... just don't know why a few others on this page don't get it....

[tobyjw]

Ignorant? Thats rich!! Are you a wealthy farmer? Or a high income earner? That or you have property on the North shore. There is nothing ignorant about low income earners suffering at the hands of workplace reforms not to mention to G.S.T. There is nothing ignorant about wanting to lower green house gas by 6% more than the Liberals in the next 5 years. Fucking liberal pricks can't see the truth if it bit them in the ass. Say goodbye to your little desicated coconut fella, his gone in a week.

[xvyxwqz]

you labor supporters are a bunch of ignorant hicks.

[samtheband]

Haha you are such a fool for making that kind of comment. Vote in your mate John Howard, and then you'll see the ERROR of your ways. YOU IGNORANT, LIBERAL, SCUMBAG CUNT.

[171277]

How much was the surplus budget

[alistra1]

Governments around the world borrow money look at th US trillions of dollars in debt. The labour government borrowed to maintain services education and build infrastucture that the following liberal government was able to capitalise on and claim they were doing a wonderous job. Keating put it aptly Costello just had to sit in a hamock for the next 10 years and enjoy the accolades.

[anoma123]

Keating left a $100,000,000,000 deficit. Simply the worst EVER!

[martydosh]

And you know something? It's now up to over $500,000,000,000 under Howard.

[171277]

Did you not hear the video. Did you not read martydosh reply. Now as of now this second the foreign debt is 500 billion. This is worse than Keatings.

[brentx69]

Guys.. Hey.. I don't want to embarrass anyone, but.. You're all getting confused with PRIVATE and PUBLIC debt.. The government (public) debt is now zero, but the people of Australia (private) have racked up over about $500b of debt (credit cards, loans, etc..). Go and do some reading you little rascals you!

[hobbles11]

you moron, they're talking about the trade deficit

[brentx69]

Another Labor supporter falling so low that he needs to resort to abuse in his argument. I thought that the trade deficit was due to private companies importing more than what they export (IE private debt).. I'm not 100% sure, so can someone explain (in civilised terms).?

[williebruciestewie]

Your the arrogant one mate, Australia is built on the working class, not one of you idiots who sit behind a desk all day pushing paper.

[brentx69]

Here we go again, more name calling.. I'm not arrogant and I don't know why you're talking about working class and pushing paper since I never mentioned that. Anyone and everyone is free to purue the career that they want. I'm a barman in Zürich, and my first job was a loader operater in QLD. Who gives a sh*t?

[mgrauvel]

The difference between Keating and Howard is simply that Keating was a leader with vision. Howard has never been anything more than an opportunist masquerading as a politician.

Will any liberal supporters answer this: what is going to happen to the liberals when they lose next saturday?

[Jamietate27]

they will have a much needed rest for a few years, then be fresh and ready to lead the country again for another 10-15 years

[samtheband]

and why was that? Why don't you tell these people why that was? Get your history right dickhead.

[chunderguts]

You have upset the ALP sycophants with the truth Anoma. The current Federal Govt debt is $0. Thank you Howard for paying off the debt left by that loser Keating.

[skycruiser777]

no dickhead..its paid down and the rest moved into interest bearing govt bonds.

[PubManTV]

Recessions and depressions are global trends. Last time the whole world was in recession. No country was immune. To blame Keating as wholly responsible shows the ignorance ans stupidity of certain people.

[bakadazcha]

Unfortunately, people don't quite understand the meaning of "the recession we had to have".

[flynnos1]

does anyone know what doco this came from?

[conno3000]

AMAZING - the budget that "brought home the bacon" was the one which immediately preceded Australia's worst depression since the 1930s.

[Howardisaliar]

With treasurer John Howard's 1982 recession, GDP plunged to -3.8% and out of that inflation was running at 11 per cent. Compare that to the recession of 1990 and GDP fell to -1.7% and the average inflationary period that followed was running at 1.5 per cent. Both flattened the economy, though Howard's recession was deeper and resulted in high inflation. Where Keating's recession gave us the longest low inflationary period in Australia's history.

[thejobloshow]

The 1982 recession was the mistake of Malcolm Fraser refusing to engage in deregulation and privatisation, meanwhile attempting to cut taxes while paying off the inherited deficit from the Whitlam government - not to mention supply side cost shocks from OPEC. Ironically, Australia's economic performance in the eighties was a result of Keating engaging in Reaganomics and Thatcherism.

[Howardisaliar]

Every time Howard cries that Malcolm Fraser stood in his way for reform - Fraser's consistent response is: show me the cabinet submissions. Howard cannot produce a single cabinet submission in which he proposed any measure to open up and modernise the Australian economy that was knocked back.

[Howardisaliar]

When Howard became treasurer (1977) the budget deficit was $3.2 billion, inflation 8 per cent, the unemployment rate 6.3 per cent and the growth rate 1.6 per cent. When he finished (March 1983), the budget deficit was $9.6 billion, inflation was 11 per cent, unemployment was 10.2 per cent, and growth was a negative 0.4 per cent.

[Aubdobie]

It was a recession, not a depression. It was caused by having to respond to the cash pumped into the world economy in the aftermath of the US Stock market crash in October 1989. All we got was a delayed recession. As painful as it was for those of us at the time time it was nothing like the pain a depression brings. In 1990, it really was "the recession we had to have" and Australia was bloody lucky we had an extremely competant government - particularly the treasurer.

[mgrauvel]

what history books are YOU reading?? Australian Economic History by Windshchuttle & Howard maybe? Australia has not had ANY depression since the 1930's. The longest period of economic growth was preceded by the best economic reforms Australia has ever had. We now hoave to pay the idiocy and poor management of the Howard/Costello years. Read the IMF reports that were partially reprinted on Thursday's AFR. So much for the liberals having ANY economic credentials!

[anglim33]

Instead of saying get a job, Keating should have told them to get a skill!!!

[KangaKucha]

Proves that Socialist Welfare economies work.

[iceman95]

171277, that is Liberal propaganda. Howard could never have enjoyed such good economic conditions through his term without the groundwork Hawke and Keating set up with their microeconomic reforms. Go grab any undergrad econ textbook, you'll see micro reform takes 10-15 years to pay off. Australia has Hawke and Keating to thank for that.

[BushyFromOz]

Hear hear (always wanted to say that ;) )

[171277]

petrol prices were dirt cheap even with sales tax. Now with no sales tax and GST and good economy it is higher than when the old tax was in place.

[171277]

I thought labour were not good at eco management. Then how did they deliver a surplus budget.

[LEsquimauennuye]

Because budget surplus is irrelevant. The recession needed to be primed through deficit (spending). Keating fixed stagnation in the Australian economy, this is the most important point a voter can know.

[gadflyzzz]

From the ABC TV documentary "Labor in Power".