What did she expect him to say?
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull warned on Wednesday that Labor has a bad record on managing Budget deficits. As he told parliament, Labor deficits are never temporary.
The Keating Government ran the Budget into deficit, it stayed there for six years and left the incoming Howard Government with $96 billion of debt to manage and hundreds of thousands of jobs to restore. The issue dominated Question Time in Parliament yesterday and the ABC ran deficit stories on the World Today and PM.
On the World Today, reporter Kirrin McKechnie played what had to be the softball question of the week to hapless Treasurer Wayne Swan:
ABC: Would you prefer just a one-year only deficit rather than it carrying on to the out years?
WAYNE SWAN: Well, naturally.
Maybe she felt sorry for him. The Treasurer had had another horrible week. As the big economic issues swell, the Treasurer recedes. Tanner and Gillard must be somewhat amused.
Lyndal Curtis put a package to air on PM and, helpfully for Labor, repeated the same ludicrous question and answer.
