The dilemma of a Prime Minister
HE would be damned if he didn’t do it; he would be damned if he did it. So, what should a man do in such circumstances?
Kevin Rudd realised this and would, certainly, have given serious thought to the matter. He knew whatever action he took -- or lack of it -- was going to be engulfed in a controversy. And he damned it all and did exactly what he thought was necessary.
The result, of course, was not surprising. It caused the biggest deficit in the nation’s history – a gigantic amount of up to $70bil, which will be announced in Tuesday’s Federal Budget.
For what it’s worth, it is a decision he has to make as Prime Minister of Australia. If he didn’t take the immediate and decisive action, he would have been strongly criticised as not having the backbone of his political career or the courage to act like a national leader in time of the most serious financial and economic crisis ever known in this country.
Yet, it is not of Australia’s making to be in such a situation. Australia is simply reeling from the worst-ever global recession ever known since the Depression of 1929.
Whether the amount spent justifies the need to boost the nation’s economy, which is falling at an alarming rate due to cutback in imports by China and India of our natural resources, is debatable.
How it is being distributed in size or amount of the stimulus packages is at the discretion of the government which has been democratically elected by the people to govern Australia.
And the government certainly would have acted on the advice of experts and professionals involved with the various industries in need of government support.
Mistakes may be done in a situation that has never been experienced before. The world, including its biggest economy, the United States, has never seen such a rapid flow of retrenchments of workers in factories, banks, shops and offices.
Trillions of dollars have been lost in what can be metaphorically described as a violent cyclone that swept all over the US, Europe and Asia, injuring the wellbeing of millions of their inhabitants.
Luckily for Australia, the impact of this evil omen has not been as serious as in other countries where bankruptcies are overwhelming for even the biggest banks and the biggest companies whose gigantic losses no one has ever expected. It is even difficult to imagine such a situation.
Nonetheless, we simply could not avoid the effects of the global recession, despite the strenuous efforts of the Rudd government to buffer our economy against it.
The government has taken a bold and courageous action to slow down the inevitable decline of the economy and for that we should be grateful for its proactive initiatives.
The justification of its stimulus packages to industry and families is proven in some small ways as retailers in Australia are reporting improved business after what they feared was going to be the worst recession they would ever suffer.
How long the government will take to balance its Budget and how it would do it will be announced by Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan on Tuesday. But it is going to be painful for everyone whatever the final measures are.
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