Friday 7 March 2008

Surprise! Surprise!

So John Howard thinks the Australian public made a mistake electing a government to undo reforms that he had no mandate to implement.(here)
He still doesn't get it does he?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

He still doesn't get it does he?

I suspect he never did.

Sure, there is some scope for Governments to do things that they didn't announce at election. Firstly, if one has a substantial policy platform it may be more sensible to outline the philosophy more so than all of the precise details. Secondly, governments need to respond to emergencies.

Still, none of this gets the ex-Government off of the hook on this one.

I suppose in some recess in Howard's mind, IR and inflation was something to be alarmed about, rather than alert. Too bad (for him, not for us plebs) that the bulk of the Australian public has exercised a bit of courage (and mutual respect) in the face of a potentially divisive challenge.

Stephan Clark said...

I think that Howard's great weakness is that he is a philosophical pragmatist. Meaning that for him anything that worked and/or had popular support was what he implemented him.
The undergirding principle was not philosophy, ethics or economics but keeping the party in power.
I just think that the bizarre throwing of money at voters at times you felt threatened, and precipitating the sort of inflation that we are now experiencing, indicates that there was nothing he wouldn't jettison in order to stay in power.