Gillard will be Treasurer next term

Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan

Julia Gillard will be Treasurer if Labor is returned at the next federal election, ABC Insiders presenter Barrie Cassidy said today.
“Swan will do the very best job he can but I think he knows that he’s got three years, no matter how good he goes in the job,” Cassidy said.
“Beyond the next election Julia Gillard will be Treasurer. I think he must know that.”
He said he didn’t know what would happen to Swan after Gillard became Treasurer.
At a Readings book store event in Melbourne, Cassidy was responding to a question about the relationship between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan.
Cassidy said Wayne Swan will never have the clout of a Costello or a Keating.

Barrie Cassidy  

If Barrie Cassidy is right, and if Labor wins the next election, the most left wing Treasurer since Jim Cairns will be pulling the levers of the nation’s economy.
For those who do not remember life under the Whitlam Government, with Cairns in the country’s top economic job, start thinking about how, between 1972 and 1975, inflation went to 16 percent, unemployment jumped by 212 per cent, home building prices soared, home loan interest rates increased by 26 per cent and days lost by strikes increased by 180 per cent. Oh, and petrol prices rose by 58 per cent.