I will leave you to judge Stephen Koukoulas's contradictory statements in his (characteristically reflexive and personalised) defence of his former boss. In response to my observation--echoed by The Australian Financial Review and the Wall Street Journal--that the PM had "called on the RBA to lower interest rates" Koukoulas says:
Well Chris, the Prime Minister neither said nor implied anything of the sort. Here is what she did say at various times during the speech:
* The RBA has “plenty of room to move further if need be”.
* “we can give the Reserve Bank room to move on monetary policy if it chooses to”
* “In the current economic environment, should the RBA consider it appropriate to change the cash rate [it can move]”
Any observer can see that all that PM Gillard and the government is seeking is a shift in the balance of economic policy towards tighter fiscal policy and easier monetary policy.
Oh, okay. Koukoulas actually agrees with me that in this speech the PM was "seeking...a shift in the balance of economic policy towards...easier monetary policy". Go figure.
