Psyber wrote:pafc1870 wrote:Cambridge Clarrie wrote: 2. Why should we trust you to not spend to the point that interest rates rise to the record levels last seen under a Labor government?
Didnt the interest rates get higher under the Frasier government when little Johnny Howard was running the finances? About 22%?
I don't remember that under Fraser - they were 17.5% under Whitlam, and I think the loan on the house I bought in 1976 in Prospect never rose above 12%, which was also the interest on the lease on my first Porsche, bought in 1979. The next time I recall hitting 17% was 1987, when I also had to settle for an Alfa.
The Australian, 5 May 2004
John Howard is once again bringing out the mantra he used to win the last election. That is, that interest rates will always be lower under a Coalition Government.
Perhaps Mr Howard has trouble recalling the time when he was treasurer under Malcolm Fraser.
A visit to the Reserve Bank's historical interest rates page on its website reveals that the highest 90-day bank bill interest rate of 21.39 per cent occurred in April 1982 during the Fraser government with Mr Howard as treasurer.The highest during the Hawke government was 19.56 per cent in December 1985. The highest under Paul Keating was 7.95 per cent in December 1994, which is only marginally higher than the highest under the Howard Government of 7.57 per cent in April 1996.
Dr Allan Thomas, Lochinvar, NSW
The inconvenient truth about interest rates and John Howardhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/letters/the-inconvenient-truth-about-interest-rates-and-john-howard/2007/10/04/1191091271442.htmlEmail Printer friendly version Normal font Large font
October 5, 2007
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As in the previous election campaign, John Howard continues to remind voters of his financial management credibility. Mr Howard recently warned Australian taxpayers that with the forecast of financial bad times to come, the Liberals as an experienced team are the most suitable to govern Australia for another term.
During the last election campaign, on August 30, 2004, Mr Howard was interviewed by Steve Liebmann on Channel Nine's Today show and said, "Everybody knows that if the interest rates that prevailed when Paul Keating was prime minister prevailed now the average Australian would be paying hundreds of dollars more a month on their mortgage bill. Now that is not a scare tactic, it is a fact. They went up under Whitlam, they went up under Keating, they went up under Hawke."
Anybody who cares to look at the Reserve Bank's records of government interest rates from the past few decades would find very different results. What John Howard did not want to admit then, and still continues to hide, is that when he was the treasurer in the Fraser government the interest rate was as high as 21.4 per cent - in April 1982. To use Mr Howard's own words "that is not a scare tactic, it is a fact".
The highest interest rates from 1982 were: Fraser government (when Mr Howard was treasurer), 21.4 per cent in April 1982; Hawke government, 19 per cent in December 1985 and Keating government, 7.9 per cent in December 1994.
The Liberal Party website during the 2004 election campaign also showed "interest rates under Labor" under Mr Whitlam as 10.38 per cent, under Mr Hawke at 17 per cent and under Mr Keating at 12 per cent. However, the rates shown were the "housing rates" and one important fact left out was that the housing rate under Mr Fraser, when Mr Howard was the treasurer, was 13 per cent - higher than under both Mr Whitlam and Mr Keating.
I think the main reason for Mr Howard's failing popularity in the polls is that since the last election Australian taxpayers have learnt to read between Mr Howard's popular lines on a number of things: GST, WMD, AWB, AWAs, the global war on terrorism and climate change, to name just a few.
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 9:24 pm