by Jimmy_041 » Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:53 am
by southee » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:22 am
by smac » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:24 am
by CK » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:30 am
by Jimmy_041 » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:47 am
by redandblack » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:57 am
by redandblack » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:58 am
CK wrote:When I first saw the thread title, I thought the ALP leadership issue was really starting to get out of hand.
by Jimmy_041 » Fri Dec 16, 2011 12:38 pm
redandblack wrote:I agree with all of what he says about us being a republic.
Especially that those opposed are either monarchists or dropkicks
by Q. » Fri Dec 16, 2011 12:43 pm
by redandblack » Fri Dec 16, 2011 1:28 pm
by southee » Fri Dec 16, 2011 3:02 pm
Quichey wrote:I think you hate Keating more than I hate Abbott
by southee » Fri Dec 16, 2011 3:40 pm
redandblack wrote:Did you get a job
by redandblack » Fri Dec 16, 2011 3:44 pm
by Jimmy_041 » Sat Dec 17, 2011 10:29 am
by Jimmy_041 » Sun Jan 01, 2012 3:25 pm
Hawke has 'diminished memory': Keating
by: Samantha Maiden
From: AdelaideNow December 31, 2011 11:06pm
Bob Hawke with Paul Keating the ALP federal election campaign launch at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane in 2007.
PAUL Keating has accused Bob Hawke of having a "diminished memory" over his role in the decision to float the dollar in 1983.
The enduring history wars over who who was the chief architect of the decision to float the Australian dollar - Hawke or Keating - has been reignited by the release today of the 1983 cabinet papers by the National Archives.
Writing exclusively in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Keating said Mr Hawke's memories are faulty and that far from being a reluctant conscript, he first raised the idea of the float in May 1983.
It was a momentous decision celebrated as one of the Hawke-Keating government's greatest achievments that paved the way for the further deregulation.
But much of the critical discussions happened behind closed doors, with the cabinet papers failing to settle the matter.
Speaking at the launch of the 1983 cabinet papers at the National Archives last month, Mr Hawke again pressed his argument, explored in his memoir Hawke: The Prime Minister authored by his wife Blanche D'Apulget.
"I am not going to get into a Paul slanging match," Mr Hawke said.
"The realities were that Paul, to some extent, was influenced by the views of Treasury at the time. That they were opposed and expressed that opposition. But the important thing is that after discussion in the cabinet and when Paul had that meeting with the Reserve Bank officials and the Treasury....that decision was made and it was supported by all the relevant ministers in the end including Paul."
Treasury secretary John Stone, has savaged Keating's "bile ridden version" of events in his own memoir to be published this month in Quantum: Floating the Dollar: Facts and Fiction. He argues Keating has overstated his own role and over-egged Mr Stone's opposition,
But writing exclusively in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Keating said Mr Hawke's memories are faulty and he first raised the idea months before.
"Bob Hawke has a very poor memory of the sequencing of all this; including my first introducing the matter to him alone in May 1983. I am trusting that his utterances on this subject arise from diminished memory of events thirty years ago, rather than from any express intention to diminish my role, central as it was, in this seminal event," Mr Keating writes.
"In May 1983, as Treasurer, I told Bob Hawke that the existing managed exchange rate system was no longer appropriate to Australia's economy and that the Government should consider moving to a floating rate," Mr Keating writes.
"I told this to Bob Hawke privately. This was the first Hawke had officially heard from the Treasurer of a propensity to move away from the existing managed system. But it was a view with which he broadly concurred.
"At around the same time, I authorised the Reserve Bank Governor, Bob Johnston, to have the Reserve Bank prepare what he called `A War Book' to lay out the field of action the Government and the authorities might take when the moment in markets was propitious to move to a float of the spot rate.
"The time between May and the announcement of the decision on 19 December 1983 was simply about getting the circumstances right."
Mr Keating argues his main concerns were "the persistent over-appreciation of the dollar relative to that which officials believed the economy's fundamentals warranted that is, floating, but off an already over-valued rate. The preparedness of the banking system, or lack of it, was also a major concern."
"The released Cabinet papers will confirm that I introduced the matter to Cabinet. And that I recommended the Government abandon the managed exchange rate system in favour of a floating rate quantity-based system," he writes.
Former Treasury secretary John Stone writes in his essay to be published this month that much of the history written about the float is wrong. He writes that he is now breaking his silence on Keating's version of history and claims Treasury opposed the float, because of the release of the cabinet documents.
"Does any of this matter? It does, on three levels," Mr Stone writes.
"On the most general level, it matters because history matters; and because, in the writing of history, the truth matters.
"On an institutional level, it matters because for twenty-eight years it has been conventional wisdom among those who take an interest in these things-politicians, public servants, economists, bankers, journalists-that the federal Treasury opposed those decisions."
by dedja » Sun Jan 01, 2012 4:17 pm
by Jimmy_041 » Sun Jan 01, 2012 4:51 pm
by redandblack » Sun Jan 01, 2012 5:20 pm
by Jimmy_041 » Sun Jan 01, 2012 9:36 pm
Competitions SANFL Official Site | Country Footy SA | Southern Football League | VFL Footy
Club Forums Snouts Louts | The Roost | Redlegs Forum |