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PRIME MINISTER
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
HOWARD'S SOUR GRAPES
The Leader of the Opposition's petulant performance on ABC Radio's AM this
morning confirms his determination to run down the Australian economy at
every opportunity.
Despite his lame assertions to the contrary, John Howard is now publicly
imploring the Australian economy to perform poorly, and denigrating the
significant economic achievements of the Australian community.
We have just achieved a record seventeenth consecutive quarter of
economic growth. Mr Howard claims the September growth figures were
" something of a mirage." Next he will be claiming we have had seventeen
consecutive mirages.
Mr Howard has now pinned his hopes on negative growth in the December
quarter it is his version of Dr Hewson's pre-1 993 election cry that the
economy was heading into depression.
Seventeen quarters some depression!
And in a breathtaking display of hypocrisy, John Howard claimed incorrectly
that confidence was low in the economy because " what people are reacting
to at the moment is the lack of any medium or long term plan from the
Government.
This from the Leader of the Opposition who has tried to make a virtue of
concealing his policies from the Australian public his only political strategy.
From John Howard, the Australian people get neither a medium or a long
term plan they simply get whingeing.
His only short term plan as he confirmed again in Perth yesterday is to
ditch the cross-media ownership rules to put an end to diversity of media
ownership in Australia.
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After Parliament has risen he dribbles out his sneaky media plan at a Perth
doorstop. Where are the critics now who accused me of making a baseless claim when
I said that Mr Packer had him in the bag? Yesterday's statement proves he
not only has him in the bag but that he has tied the knot with a silken tassel.
CANBERRA 6 DECEMBER, 1995