Whitlam, Hawke, Keating - the 3 worst prime ministers this country ever had but don't hold a candel to Gillard. Keating, by the way, floated the dollar instead of keeping it tied to the gold standard. If he hadn't done that - we would be one of the richest nations in the southern hemisphere. While the rest of the world goes down the dunny with money - we follow. as he put it "Scumbag"

Whitlam laid to foundation to Australia becoming one of the poorest nations in regard to mentality in our education system & Law & Order.

It all comes back to why Labor must never be allowed to govern this country again.

Alan Austin who contributes regularly to articles on
this Forum reminds us of the following facts:

"Australia's economy strengthened remarkably through
the Hawke-Keating period. The world watched in awe as
Paul Keating deregulated the banks, floated the Aussie
dollar, reduced tariffs on imports, "snapped the stick"
of inflation and moved from centralised wage-fixing to
enterprise bargaining and privatised publicly-owned
non-monopolies."

"Australia had risen by 1996 to sixth in the world (from
about the 20th in 1982), behind only the United Arab
Emirates, Norway, Singapore, Japan and the US. That's measured
by the variables: income, growth, wealth, jobs, inlfation,
interest rates, taxes, economic freedom, and credit ratings."

"In 1996 Treasurer Peter Costello inherited an economy in
great shape. The tax system had been overhauled, the
public service had been trimmed to size and the budget
returned to structural surplus after decades of deficits."

"The structural reforms of the Hawke-Keating years built
the foundation for Australia to beat the world and this eventually
happened in 2010 when Australia rocketed to the top of the
world's economies."

By 2007 - Australia had slipped back in rankings to 10th place.
And this occurred at the time during which there was global
growth and an "extraordinarily acquiescent media."
Australia was overtaken by Iceland, Luxenbourg, Switzerland, Taiwan,
Hong Kong and China.

As Austin tells us, "There was no excuse for this deterioration."
However six serious blunders cost Australia dearly.
The first was the selling off productive assets which included,
airports, the National Rail Corporation, Dasfleet, Telstra,
the remaining share of the Commonwealth Bank and many other
variable enterprises."

Austin points out that "had Australia retained some or all of these
cash-yielding assets current angst over debt may well have
been allayed."

I won't go into any more detail at present. This information is
available on the web. Historians will judge each PM and their
times differently from our "arm-chair" discussions.
Of course the moment historians begin to look critically at -
circumstances, context, or any other such considerations, the
product becomes unacceptable for one or another camp of
readers.

Foxy my sweet, Alan Austin is without one of the least qualified to speak on anything regarding finances or government of any commentator I have read.

Not only a fool, but the man is ideologically impaired, having swallowed some strange socialist manifesto in his youth, & been unable to cough it up, to rid himself of the affliction.

I suppose we should treat him with some sympathy, & would if not for his strange attitude in believing he knows everything, & probably does about nothing. This leads to the type of unpleasant & baseless arrogance he, & many other lefty afflicted commentators display.

Dear Hasbeen,

Alan Austin actually does his research - which
as a librarian I acknowledge. His information is
based on facts not on opinion and he does give
all of his sources and the full quotes. He does
not cherry-pick contrary to the misinformation
that's supplied by the MSM of the Murdoch fold such as
The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, and others,
Where key facts and many otherrs are often left out.

You really must broaden your reading.
It's actually educational, even though it may be
distressing at times.