Holiday break over, it’s back to work, comrades. Bill Shorten on Insiders today, sneering at and sledging Scott Morrison and the coalition for all and every decision they’ve ever made. ‘We don’t care about a million elderly people living on their own savings. We don’t care about double taxation of company profits. Bugger elderly shareholders, we don’t care if they have to go onto a pension to survive, their painfully accumulated share investments greatly reduced in value. I don’t mind telling porkies and I will continue to do so until Morrison and his mob of homophobic, women-hating, friends of rich folk are dismissed from gummint.’
There you have it, gentle readers, new standards of bullshit, sneering and desperation from a Labor leader. The only decent Labor government we’ve had since Henry was a lad is the Hawke-Keating government and those relative statesman must wince whenever Messrs Shorten and Bowen come on the TV to spread their special brand of bulls**t. Roll on the election, and keep at it Scomo and team.
‘All eyes on Reserve Bank’ said David Rogers on p37 of the Weekend Oz. US economy is slowing, China struggling, Eurozone barely recovering with Brexit to come.
Despite Australia’s relative prosperity our cash interest rates remain at 1.5 %. ‘Next change will be up’ says RBA chief Philip Lowe. ‘Or down’ may be added as housing prices fall, falling faster except, wait for it, Canberra. ‘No recession here’ Canberrans say, and may still be saying when the Shorten recession happens elsewhere. Why cash interest rates were not returned to neutrality, or a bit more, when house prices were rising fast is utterly mysterious. When Dr Lowe was a student he wrote, with a senior co-author, a paper suggesting exactly such action during an housing boom.
‘Australia needs a good recession’ is no doubt being said over their cornflakes by retired Treasury officials at breakfast, and perhaps even the occasional former RBA leader. As the world economy slows and Prime minister Shorten piles on taxes Australia is very likely to slip into recession. We must hope it is a mild recession but if global share owners finally make up their minds to cut and run that will be the next chunk of bad news.
Sorry to spoil the party, gentle readers, but someone’s gotta say it. Treasury and the mighty RBA these days seem to believe they are part of the economy’s cheer squad. As salaries rise, people in such organisations have far more to lose than in the days when the rule was to tell truth to power.
Sporting life.
Very sad to see a second Sri Lankan batter be escorted off the ground by medical staff. It seems our fast bowlers are faster than they are used to. (Or was it just a replay?) But this brief series will mean the Sri Lankans return faster and meaner, like the Indians in their recent visit to these shores. It looks like Australia will win, perhaps again by an innings and change. Fast bowling coach urgently needed should be the call for the visitors.
The new Geelong team of female footy players beat the old enemy Collingwood in the first game of AFLW last night. Why the AFL think it is smart to play wimmin in the heat of late summer is beyond Henry. Bite the bullet, AFL mogols. Let them play exactly the same season at the blokes, preferably (in my opinion) playing before the blokes on the same grounds. The old plan of having the seconds playing drew spectators, and two game for the price of one will do so again. (I hear you, AFL mogols, two games on different grounds will make even more money, but you can afford to give that up for your customers’ benefit.)
The gals from Caaaarlton! were flogged, so nothing is change with the Blues.
The allegation that horse racing is crook, or at least that one leading trainer has, ahem, found new and unusual ways to get horses to win, is shocking but unsurprising. More here.
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