It’s not Johnny Weissmuller; in fact it’s the Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan.
In recent weeks one could have been excused if you thought all the chest beating over the budget and the spending cuts sounded like Johnny Weissmuller who made 12 Tarzan movies – but no, instead it’s been the diminutive Queenslander.
Wayne Swan has been out there and while not exactly coming out with a cry similar to what Weissmuller made famous, he certainly has been calling it out loud a clear.
In as many forms as possible Mr. Swan has been warning that the “inflation genie was out of the bottle” and that it was a “cancer” that needs curing.
The way to achieve this was to make massive cuts to public spending to reign inflation in.
To jolt the public into accepting the pain, the Treasurer along with the Prime Minister like Tarzan, has been calling out loud and clear from the tree tops.
Part of this cry has also raised the dreaded interest rate hike spectre as another reason for taking an axe to public spending.
Mr. Rudd says unless the Government did its part then the blunt instrument of interest rates would be the Reserve Bank’s weapon of choice.
Their cry was reinforced this week when the Reserve Bank, while not raising rates this year for a third time, left the door open for further increases if inflation was seen to be still a problem.
The bank on Friday stated, “…while inflation is likely to remain high in the short term, it is forecast to start to decline towards the end of 2008, reaching a rate of around 2¾ per cent at the end of the forecast period. This assessment would need to be reviewed if the expected moderation in domestic demand does not occur,…”
In other words the proverbial baseball bat with the words “interest rate hikes” written on it would be brought out from behind the back of Reserve Bank boss Glenn Stevens
Mr Swan and Mr Rudd have pushed the line that the need to reign in spending was required to counter the “profligate” expenditure of the previous Howard-led Coalition.
They have conceded that there are also overseas influences, but overall it is the legacy of the previous government.
This has thrown up the unusual image of a Labor administration warning of “unpopular” spending cuts while the Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson and his Treasury spokesperson Malcolm Turnbull warning against cutting too deep.
The two men have been accused by Mr Rudd of being the only Australians along with the “tooth fairy” who do not think inflation a problem.
Leading analysts Access Economics has warned that we either get “a horror budget or we continue to get horror interest rates.”
This is the “ugly choice” that faces the government, Access argues in its budget monitor paper.
So it does appear that we will continue to have the unusual scenario of an opposition which would normally be pushing for budget cuts, instead urging the Government not to cut too deep.
On the other side a Government which campaigned last year in the election lead up as being “conservative” when it came to economic matters.
Even if the budget surplus which was tipped to be around $17 billion in fact comes in as high as $20 billion as predicted by some, the Government will cut.
One of the main reasons being that the “Tarzans” of the Government, have continually stated it will go ahead with the pledge to cut tax.
Mr Rudd promised the tax cuts and it being Labor’s first budget since the election, he won’t want to be tarred with the same brush of core and non-core promises which haunted John Howard.
This is despite warnings that all that extra money in the economy will further fuel inflation.
One thing that is no doubt providing Labor with comfort is that despite a slight slip in the latest public opinion poll it is well ahead of the Coalition, which is also suffering from leadership speculation.
The government can go with the big cuts, have the budget surplus in its hip pocket and pray that the inflation genie goes back into the bottle with little knock on effect from overseas turmoil.
Then next year and the year after as another election looms, the purse strings can be loosened despite Mr Rudd arguing that this year’s budget won’t be a one year wonder and that Labor was looking beyond the election cycle.
That may sound good, but don’t forget despite what they may say they are all politicians whose lives are largely governed by the election cycle.
