Friday 24 October 2008

Just how dishonest is The Oz willing to be?

It would be hard to miss recent argument and counter-argument concerning the Rudd Government pledge to guarantee all deposits held in APRA-regulated financial institutions.
The media has been playing the Federal Opposition's attack for all it is worth.

The Australian in an effort to act as Teh Opposition Gazette worked really hard to make the grade and ended up basically accusing the Rudd Government and Treasury of lying over the issue of an unlimited guarantee.

Along with Liberal Senator Abetz*, it was caught out using this tack and Treasury Secretary Henry told a Senate estimates economics hearing that The Australian's report was W.R.O.N.G.!

In the process Ken Henry pointed out that the issue of capping the amount at which deposits would be able to evade a levy was being considered:

“Far be it from me to offend anyone, and especially you Senator,” Henry began drily, “ but there’s been some misunderstanding about the term ‘cap’.” He went on to explain the difference between a cap on the guarantee and a cap at which point deposits would be treated as wholesale lending and thus attract a cost to access the guarantee. [Crikey.com.au, 22 October 2008]

Now after declaring it was right all along, The Australian has switched tactics and in a less than honest report it included a virtually unreadable version of the Stevens letter to Henry dealing with the levy.
Obviously hoping that the general public will conflate the two cap types.

The Australian version of the Stevens letter here.

* I would wishfully like to think the reason why the relevant online Senate transcript was not available at time of writing was because a contrite Senator Abetz and staff were busying trying unsuccessfully to obliterate his very unwise remarks from Hansard and history.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Clarencegirl,
I've learned more in ten minutes about the region by reading your blog than I have over the past month of reading newspapers, tourism guides and websites.
I'm bookmarking you as my one stop shop for local politics, opinions and ramblings.
Great, great blog.
PS. My cat is my political nemesis.
STUFT

clarencegirl said...

Everyone at North Coast Voices thanks you for this support.
It is comments like this that encourage us to continue on in the face of competing claims on out time.
Again, welcome to the Valley.