Wayne Swan taught Jim “chicken” Chalmers everything he knows:
Former Labor federal treasurer Wayne Swan has backed the government’s attitude towards inflation, saying he is “very disappointed” in the Reserve Bank and it was “punching itself in the face.”
Mr Wayne, who was Jim Chalmers‘s boss, slammed the RBA for “hammering households” with interest rates after the economy grew 0.2 in the three months to June.
“Okay, well, I think the Reserve Bank is putting economic dogma over rational economic decision making, hammering households, hammering mums and dads with higher rates, causing a collapse in spending and driving the economy backwards, and doesn’t necessarily deal with the principal pushes when it comes to higher inflation,” Mr Swan said.
Not as disappointed as we are, Wayno.
In 2011, Wayne Swan invited the big miners into the Cabinet room to write their own tax policies after they disposed of Kevin Rudd’s super profits tax, as well as Kevin Rudd himself.
At the time, Jim ” chicken” Chalmers was Swan’s deputy and he learned the only lesson that has mattered: never challenge big extractive industries.
So, as the Ukraine War erupted and Australia’s gas giants war profiteered in 2022, Chicken Chalmers dived under his desk and let them do it.
The rest is history, with Aussie stagflation the direct result.
Thus, over the long haul, Wayne Swan is a major reason behind today’s schism between Labor and the RBA.
Chicken Chalmer’s has delivered energy rebates to reduce headline inflation but it does not affect core inflation because they are temporary:
Wayne Swan set this in motion 15 years ago.
Having a memory longer than a goldfish in Aussie politics is traumatising.
