Peter Costello says Kevin Rudd has yet to grasp economic policy
Peter Costello interviewed by Fran
Kelly on ABC Radio National’s
Breakfast program this morning.
Former federal treasurer Peter Costello today said today that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has not come to grips with economic policy.
Commenting on ABC radio about the Prime Minister’s scathing critique of the Liberal Party’s economic record, Mr Costello said Mr Rudd’s assessment came from the fact that the Prime Minister has not been a part of the great economic debates in Australia’s recent history.
“I don’t think Kevin Rudd was part of any of the great economic debates of Australia’s modern history. He wasn’t part of the debates over tariffs. He wasn’t part of the debates over industrial relations. He wasn’t part of the debates over the GST. He wasn’t part of the debates over independent monetary policy. You see, he hasn’t lived through any of these debates and so he hsn’t got a firm position in relation to them. One day he’s in favour of them, the next day they are all neo-liberal failures.
“And I think you’ve got to bear in mind he’s someone who came to the prime ministership essentially through foreign affairs … and because he hasn’t lived these debates he doesn’t have a firm understanding of them himself.
Mr Costello said we are witnessing a new phase in the evolution of Kevin Rudd.
“Before the election, if you recall, he was an economic conservative and wanted to be elected to continue the things we’d put in place.
“At the beginning of this year was the second phase when he wrote that article, you’ll recall, for The Monthly, saying that economic neo-liberalism had been a 30-year failure and he repudiated not just what the Howard-Costello government put in place, but what the Hawke-Keating government had put in place.
“And then this week we had the third movement in this phase which was economic liberalism was good under Hawke-Keating but bad under Costello and Howard. So it’s a bit like Labor good, Liberal bad,” Mr Costello said.
