Howard tells Rudd to 'grow up'

The usual Leftist glass jaw again. (In boxing, a fighter who is easily knocked out is said to have a "glass jaw")

PRIME Minister John Howard has told Labor Leader Kevin Rudd to "grow up" and stop complaining about government attacks on him and his party. The government has this week run ads attacking Mr Rudd and his treasury spokesman Wayne Swan as inexperienced L-platers. Labor quickly launched counter-ads in which Mr Rudd says the ads are part of a government scare campaign.

Mr Howard today said Mr Rudd's complaints about being attacked were "extraordinary". "What the Labor Party is saying is please don't attack us," Mr Howard told reporters in Brisbane. "What they're really saying is it's unfair and illegitimate for the Labor Party to be attacked in this election campaign."

Mr Howard said Mr Rudd and Labor seemed entirely happy to attack the government and were applying a double standard. "Can I just say to Mr Rudd: grow up," Mr Howard said. "I mean realise that you are in a very willing political contest, and this is a contest for the government of Australia, it's a contest for the hearts and minds of the Australian people."

Mr Howard said "of course" the government would point out in its new ads that 70 per cent of Labor's frontbench were former union officials: "It's not negative, it's not dirty, it's not personal, it's true."

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Australians getting rich

Treasury data shows local consumers have never been in better financial shape. Australians' average net wealth has doubled in the past five years to about $408,000 - up $22,000 in the past three months. It's the world's fastest rate of growth in personal wealth over five years, according to a Boston Consulting Group study. Much of the 19 per cent annual gain was boosted by a slide in the US dollar, but Australia's rate of growth was more than twice the increase in the global average of 8.6 per cent a year.

CommSec chief economist Craig James said yesterday wealth levels were now likely to level off after the solid gains of recent years. "But rather than slow down, private-sector wealth has picked up steam, rising in the past quarter just shy of the fastest pace in nine years," he said. Mr James said the financial strength of Australians meant most consumers could cope with another interest rate rise as early as next month. A hike in an election month would be unprecedented, but financial markets said it was nearly an each-way bet, with the pricing at 46 per cent. "The Reserve Bank will look at the wealth figures and conclude that Australians can weather another rate hike," Mr James said. "The economy is at full capacity. The good news is that immigration and investment are rising and supply is continuing to expand. "The Reserve Bank clearly has reason to be worried about inflation."

The publication of September quarter inflation numbers next Wednesday will be a critical point in the RBA's negotiations on Melbourne Cup Day. Westpac senior economist Anthony Thompson said the bank expected headline inflation to reach 1.1 per cent in the quarter. Higher food, housing and alcohol expenses were likely to make the largest contribution to price increases.

BCG partner and Australian financial services practice head Matthew Rogozinski said the increase in wealth was due to the combination of strong financial market performance over an extended period, and the superannuation system, which had mandated a high level of savings.

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Ears to the pulpit, when it suits

The article below by Gerard Henderson might also have mentioned the enormous outrage when a tiny Christian sect -- the Exclusive Brethren -- supported the conservatives in the last election. A non-Leftist church was just unforgiveable and had to be in the wrong

Believe it or not, it now appears that Christian leaders in Australia can enter the political debate without being lectured concerning that which belongs to God and that which belongs to Caesar. Provided they choose a fashionable topic, of course. As in criticising the Howard Government's Work Choices legislation.

Take the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, for example. Earlier this year Cardinal George Pell was severely criticised for his public comments opposing a bill to expand stem cell research, which was then before the NSW Parliament. So much so that his views were referred to the Privileges Committee, for possible censure, by the Greens MP Lee Rhiannon. Pell was cleared. But this does not negate the fact that Rhiannon believes the Archbishop's views should be curtailed when he speaks out on what is clearly an issue of faith and morals.

Last Wednesday Pell addressed the National Press Club in Canberra on the topic of World Youth Day, to be celebrated in Sydney in July. Following the talk, he was asked a number of questions, including one on Work Choices. Pell reaffirmed that he'd been critical of the Howard Government's industrial relations reform agenda but said he was "very pleased" to see that the Coalition had "reinstated the no-disadvantage clause, especially for minimum wage earners".

Did Rhiannon have any objection to Pell's criticism of the original Work Choices legislation? Not at all. It seems the Greens MPs only get upset when church leaders speak about morality and are unfazed by their entry into political debate, provided their views are at least compatible with a regulatory agenda.

During the question period, Pell was asked about Labor's education policy under Kevin Rudd - who has junked Mark Latham's approach at the 2004 election and brought the ALP into line with the Coalition. He replied that he was "certainly happy to endorse . the schools policy, for the Catholic and independent schools, of the Labor Party". Fair enough.

On the ABC Radio Sunday Profile program last weekend, the presenter, Monica Attard, claimed that Pell "has come out in support of the ALP - and its education policy, in particular". Pell has not endorsed either Labor or the Coalition. Rather, he made it clear at the National Press Club that he was "more than happy" to leave the choice between John Howard and Rudd "to the individual voters". This is the kind of howler that should be picked up by the ABC TV Media Watch program. But as Attard presents that program as well, this seems unlikely. Attard is focused on the (alleged) errors of others.

Attard's false claim re Pell occurred during an introduction to her guest Peter Jensen, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney. As was to be expected, the presenter indicated her disagreement with Jensen on such matters as the consecration of female bishops in the Anglican Church. However, the questions were much softer when Jensen criticised the Howard Government's reform of industrial relations. His point was that Australians are "financially wealthy" but "relationship poor". He advocates a re-regulation of the industrial relations system to bring about a "shared day off".

When the likes of Pell and Jensen express doubts about industrial relations reform, they invariably receive sympathetic coverage in the media. This suggests that, now at least, it's okay for church leaders to talk about politics - at least when they are opposing deregulation in particular and economic reform in general. Most of the journalists and academics who comment on such matters agree with the Pell/Jensen position and this ensures favourable coverage.

For politicians who are committed to an economic reform agenda, however, the publicly expressed views of church leaders and clerical organisations can be frustrating. This was evident when the federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott, addressed the Institute of Public Affairs, also on Wednesday. Abbott, a Catholic, criticised bodies such as the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council and stated that "a political argument is not transformed into a moral argument simply because it's delivered with an enormous dollop of sanctimony".

Abbott's frustration is understandable. Industrial relations reform started with Paul Keating's Labor government and the rate of change was substantially increased due to the initiatives of Howard, Peter Costello, Abbott and the like. Before the reform process, unemployment was more than 10 per cent. It is now close to 4 per cent, with a rate of about 3 per cent a real possibility.

Yet the publications of such bodies as the Social Justice Council and the Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations make virtually no reference to the fact that unemployment has been substantially reduced following the industrial relations reform. Interviewed on the PM program on Thursday, Sister Libby Rogerson, social justice director for the Parramatta Catholic diocese, ran the same line as those two councils when she complained that "a young person from Mt Druitt going for his or her first job" is in "no position to negotiate their pay and conditions". Clearly she wants the trade unions involved.

Rogerson seems oblivious to the fact that, without industrial relations reform, such a young person would have found it very difficult - if not impossible - to find a job. This is something that church leaders, and organisations run by the Christian churches - such as the Social Justice Council and Anglicare - rarely acknowledge.

The unfashionable fact is that nations which have paid heed to Catholic social teaching have had poor economic outcomes. Ireland and Italy come to mind. Ireland recovered from high unemployment only after it embraced economic reform. The churches have a right to enter the public debate. And citizens - Christian and non-Christian - have the right to contest their views with respect to the secular and the spiritual.

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Amazing medical job offer

Politicians trying to spin out of it

A job offer made to a doctor who pleaded guilty to contributing to the death of a patient has been withdrawn, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has said. The Queensland Medical Tribunal yesterday banned Dr Jaideep Bali from practising for 10 months after he pleaded guilty to misconduct over the death of Lillian Shaw, 67, in January 2005. The tribunal heard that despite the plea, Logan Hospital, south of Brisbane, was prepared to offer the foreign-trained doctor a job.

Ms Bligh today said the offer was always conditional on the tribunal's decision, and had now been withdrawn. "An offer by Logan Hospital of a temporary junior doctor position was always conditional on the doctor having current registration and meeting other medical board and Queensland Health requirements," Ms Bligh told state parliament. "The offer to Dr Bali has been withdrawn following yesterday's outcome in the tribunal."

Ms Bligh said the case was proof that the checks and balances put in place after the Dr Jayant Patel scandal were working. Dr Patel fled to the US after he was linked to the deaths of 17 patients at Bundaberg Base Hospital. "Queensland Health will not employ any doctor who does not have current registration with the Medical Board," Ms Bligh said. "Put simply - no registration, no job - this doctor did not get through our screening processes."

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