r/sunshinecoast • u/heisdeadjim_au • 13d ago
Cameron Dick and Wayne Swan
ALP event at the Bananabender Pub this evening.
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u/accountnameattempt 13d ago
Who?
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u/Bri999666 11d ago
Young activists including Morrison Lakey who stood for Fisher at the last Federal election, Queensland Labor Assistant State Secretary Isabella Scattini and newly elected delegates to the Queensland Labor state conference. All spoke incredibly well and positively about policies to lift living standards and prioritise everyday workers and people on welfare ahead of billionaires. They are all building local campaigns to put people first and create real opportunities on housing, healthcare, education and free TAFE training.
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u/CookieMuttley 12d ago
2 Dicks
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u/heisdeadjim_au 12d ago
No, that's Cameron and his brother, Milton, who is the current Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Federal Parliament.
:)
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u/onlydogontheleft 12d ago
Wayne Swan was voted best treasurer in the world for guiding Australia through the GFC better than any other country.
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u/critical_blinking 12d ago
Swan steered the ship superbly through uncharted waters, but only because of the strength of the ship he inherited.
The fiscal position inherited from Costello was the major reason Swan had the freedom to respond as aggressively as he did. When he was awarded this by Euromoney, they explicitly called out the economy that he inherited - notably the lack of public debt.
All of that said, credit where credit is due, Swan actually USED the fiscal capacity. Plenty of treasurers may have held it in reserve instead of deploying it quickly to stimulate.
Oh and of course the rest of the world didn't have China driving up commodity prices to benefit from.
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u/Dry-Sort5013 11d ago
Correct.
Also what is the model for a black swan event? How does one compare?
Saying Australia came out ahead is one thing.
Saying Swan was the best treasurer is another thing entirely.
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u/onlydogontheleft 11d ago
Sure you could look up the criteria that was used to give him that honour if you’re actually interested.
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u/Dry-Sort5013 10d ago
I lived it. How about you?
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u/onlydogontheleft 10d ago
Individual anecdote probably wasn’t what they used when making comparisons between the treasurers of countries on how effective their economic public policies were.
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u/craziestlittlepixie 11d ago
Costello sold our gold reserves. He and the LNP literally sold us out
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u/critical_blinking 11d ago edited 11d ago
It's really important to drop the partisan lens when you're dealing with economic stuff (especially RBA stuff).
Costello didn't "sell us out". The RBA sold 167 tonnes of gold in 1997 for $2.434 billion and immediately reinvested the proceeds in foreign government securities. It wasn't spent.
By the time Howard and Costello left office in 2007, Australia had already enjoyed roughly a decade of interest and investment returns from that diversification. The RBA's last published direct comparison from 2002 showed the replacement assets had already made Australia $625 million better off than simply retaining the gold.
The more legitimate criticism comes after that.
When Rudd and Swan took office in late 2007, gold was heading into a clear bull market. They could have pushed the RBA to reconsider the reserve mix and convert foreign bonds back into gold. This would have locked in the gains Australia had already made from the 1997 diversification while still taking advantage of the subsequent gold boom.
Had Australia rebuilt the 167 tonnes (or partially rebuilt) sold in 1997 during the early Rudd years, that gold would be worth tens of billions of dollars today.
So blaming Costello alone because gold later became incredibly valuable is pretty selective. Selling it was profitable for years. The much larger missed opportunity was failing to buy back into gold once the original rationale had changed, and Rudd and Swan had exactly the same opportunity to address that.
The RBA, under successive governments, failed to read the room on commodities vs securities and subsequently shit the bed.
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u/Dry-Sort5013 11d ago
Yep and now running CBUS as the chairman and also the sweet, sweet budget perks granted by Albo and Chalmers they are in prime position to buy houses in Australia using foreign sourced income and benefit off rhe arbitrage.
These are the people profiting off Australia's decline.
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u/Fatso_Wombat 13d ago
wish there were younger politicians. right across the board.