What Kevin Rudd would like you to forget

Kevin Rudd has abandoned his key principles. Addressing the Lowy Institute earlier this week, Mr Rudd said: “Having a job is about family security – because if there are no jobs, there is no household pay packet and therefore no security for individuals and families. We therefore know in our hearts that everything that happens in national government boils down to one principle: it is fundamentally about the economy, growth and jobs”. Yet Mr Rudd’s own Economic Statement, released earlier this month shows: * unemployment is forecast to rise to 6.25 per cent; * growth is forecast to slow to 2.5 per cent; * the Budget’s bottom line has deteriorated by $33 billion; and * debt is forecast to rise to $300 billion by Christmas. These are Labor’s own figures. They are Labor’s epitaph. Let no one forget that these figures are the measure of Labor’s own economic mismanagement. No amount of spin, no amount of obfuscation or bluster can alter the facts. In raw figures, unemployment is forecast to approach 800,000 people by the end of June 2014. That is 800,000 people who will not have a pay packet, who will have no security for their families and who may not be able to pay their mortgage or rent. Put simply, Kevin Rudd has breached his own principle of government. He cannot be taken at his word. 31 August 2013