After the revelations of Peter Hartcher’s book ,To the Bitter End, the Coalition will surely not again dare to shriek like the witches of Macbeth that it is a better handler of the economy than the ALP . The signs aren’t promising though what with Malcolm Turnbull, Joe Hockey and the rest of the Nuns' Chorus variously chanting Rudd is spending like a drunken sailor or like Santa on steroids. Ho,ho,ho-merry mixed metaphors all round,including us.
The book and interviews with author Hartcher, political editor of the Sydney Morning Herald , revealed that Prime Minister Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello , pretending to be a a dynamic duo working in tandem, played ducks and drakes with the economy and each other . Treasury was instructed to keep the PM in the dark and Howard made announcements affecting the public purse without informing his buddy . Seems one helluva way to run an economy.
The mining boom enabled Costello to revel in the false illusion that he was a grand treasurer. Despite the massive revenue , hospitals , schools, roads , universities and major infrastructure projects were short changed. As usual , Paul Keating, with his exquisite command of pungent commentary, is on record as saying the facially contorted treasurer had been “ hit in the a*se with a rainbow ”. In more genteel language, this meant the government received pots of gold , not due to any action by Costello, the keeper of the exchequer not welcome by the PM to even use the tradesmen’s entrance at Kirribilli House.
The book and interviews with author Hartcher, political editor of the Sydney Morning Herald , revealed that Prime Minister Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello , pretending to be a a dynamic duo working in tandem, played ducks and drakes with the economy and each other . Treasury was instructed to keep the PM in the dark and Howard made announcements affecting the public purse without informing his buddy . Seems one helluva way to run an economy.
The mining boom enabled Costello to revel in the false illusion that he was a grand treasurer. Despite the massive revenue , hospitals , schools, roads , universities and major infrastructure projects were short changed. As usual , Paul Keating, with his exquisite command of pungent commentary, is on record as saying the facially contorted treasurer had been “ hit in the a*se with a rainbow ”. In more genteel language, this meant the government received pots of gold , not due to any action by Costello, the keeper of the exchequer not welcome by the PM to even use the tradesmen’s entrance at Kirribilli House.
