Howard Digs Own Hole
Australian voters have largely rejected the Prime Minister’s claim State governments are responsible for the upward pressure on interest rates – with 7 out of 10 flatly rejecting the PMs claim.
A poll of almost 5,000 people by CoreData and The Australian newspaper has revealed 70.43% of people believe the States were not at all responsible for changes in interest rates.
Only 13.98% of people said the States were largely responsible with 14.21% believing they were partly responsible.
Many see Howard as taking credit for the historically low interest rates of the past decade, yet the public appears bemused that the Government is now passing blame to the State governments as upward pressure on rates is brought to bear.
In Howard’s defence the states where people most agreed with him were the booming states of Queensland and Western Australia.
40.5% and 32.3% of voters in QLD and WA felt their State politicians were largely or partly to blame for the pressure on interest rates.
This compared to only 25.8% of people in New South Wales and ACT, 21.9% in Victoria and 25.5% in South Australia.
Most interesting was the reaction felt in both Howard’s own Sydney electorate of Bennelong and Federal Oppositon leader Kevin Rudd’s own seat of Griffith in QLD.
A significant 58.12% of Rudd’s electorate agreed with Howard’s notion that the states were infact largely resposnible – this compares to only 13.98% at national level and only 16.67% in Howard’s own constituency.
The poll ran between the 8th and 10th of August and had 4,866 respondents.
One Comment on “Howard Digs Own Hole”
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Brian Mitchell says:
John Howard’government has been interfering with fiscal policies by buying voter support with overly generous budgetary handouts – the Reserve Bank’s job has been made difficult by his government’s actions.