Pre-budget tory economics: timeline of a disaster

Whilst you can't have sympathy for a Tory, the past week taught me that it is possibly to pity them. Turnbull has spent the past week taking preemptive strikes on the Australian economy and failing, time and time again. That's why I have compiled this short timeline of Tory failure on economic rhetoric over the past 2 weeks.

24 April - Turnbull claims economy moving backwards

Malcolm Turnbull slams the Australian government, claiming the stimulus packages had not "hasn't prevented the economy from going backwards".

6 May ~ Midday - Economy moves forward

Retail spending figures are released that are four and a half times projections, at 2.2% growth. Economists put this down to the stimulus package. Turnbull, without acknowlodging this key economic figure suggests the economy has gone forward, persists in claiming that stimulus has mostly failed.

6 May ~ 7:35 - Turnbull claims jobs real test of leadership

Turnbull tells Kerry O'Brien that the retail figures aren't the real game but jobs figures are saying "we can talk about retail sales figures as much as we like. Let's see what happens to jobs - that's the real test". He also claims the stimulus packages "didn't deliver one job".

7 May - Job figures go up

Jobs figures are released showing that unemployment is down. At this point, Turnbull, routed twice bows out of the economic debate and sends in Hockey, who, unable to contain his disbelief mounted two contradictory arguments at once: firstly claiming that the figures where wrong, and that the economy was getting worse commenting "Do you believe there has been a massive surge of job creation in NSW in the last month?", and then, in the same doorstop claiming that the positive figures showed that massive spending and stimulus was not needed.


8th May - 11 May - Tories AWOL

After opening their mouths three times and shoving their collective feet into them each time, the Tories adopt Martin Hamilton-Smith's tactic of bunkering down and saying nothing. The peacefull silence that had overtaken the intellectual wasteland that is the Coalition shadow cabinet is broken only by Tony Abbott to acknowledge that, in hindsight, now that Labor was doing it, the Howard government should have brought in paid maternity leave (this from the man who in 2002 quipped to a Liberal fundraiser "Compulsory paid maternity leave? Over this Government’s dead body, frankly").

12 May - Swan hands down budget

Swan hands down the federal budget. Game on.

The full debacle on this one, only available here.