RuddWell, the best you could say for Kevin Rudd’s performance at the National Press Club yesterday was that it was predictableNo apology for presiding over an economically illiterate  Government between 2007-10 and no concrete measures to back his thought bubbles about Australia’s economic futureInstead, as Professor Judith Sloan puts it, Rudd’s theme was more like “so where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?”After all, she says, what’s a bit of debt and deficit when, in Rudd’s mind, he saved the economy from recession?Well, Judith Sloan says, here are a few factsKevin Rudd had nothing to do with Australia riding out the GFCLabour market flexibility pre Rudd’s Fair Work Act and the surge in China’s economy were responsible for thatKevin Rudd presided over a wasteful spending spree Whitlamesque in its scaleHe handed out cash to stimulate spendingThe cash didn’t stimulate spending, it was largely savedHe wasted money on a botched pink batts scheme which cost 4 livesHe wasted money on an expensive school hall-building scheme which was still in full swing well after the GFC had fadedGovernment spending under Rudd rose 13% in 2008-09 and another 4% in 2009-10The Budget deficit reached $54 billion – or 4.2% of GDP – in 2008-09The Budget has still not returned to surplus after 5 yearsKevin Rudd’s Press Club appearance was an attempt to revise historyBut no-one’s buying it

The Alan Jones Breakfast show: Highlights

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