grodscorp@grods.comDr Brendan not quite a man of the people
 | Posted by The Editor on Thursday 3 April 2008, 7:33 pm Categories: Politics Tags: Tags: banks, BrendanNelson, InterestRates, LiberalParty, ListeningTour, populism |
Dr Brendan Nelson yesterday took a quick break from his Magical Listening Tour to give a speech at a wbankers’ lunch in Sydney. During the listening tour he tried really hard to show how connected he was to your average middle Australian.
…one lady I gave a hand to get some petrol into her car who put $30 in, was saying “gee, I really hope petrol comes down soon. I’ve got to buy groceries; we’ve got other commitments with the house and interest rates and so on”.
[...]
…sole parents with two or three kids, elderly people on fixed incomes, retirees, mothers that have got three kids to feed… [are] really battling with their grocery prices.
And then at the bankers lunch the good doctor showed how disconnected he was to your average middle Australian.
He said that while it was tough for families to lose their homes, it was also hard on the people evicting them.
“Anyone who doesn’t think it’s equally a significant experience to those who are the lenders misunderstands the nature of what you do and how you do it,” he told the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.
He went on to attack those who criticised banks: “It’s easy for some people in public life to engage in cheap populism and criticise lenders.”
The Opposition Leader even appeared to defend banks that raised their interest rates higher than the official rate, as the Commonwealth has been condemned for doing.
“The strength of the financial services sector and our banking sector in particular is absolutely essential to our stability, notwithstanding the argy-bargy over what individual banks may do from time to time,” he said.
“Whatever people think about banks making a profit, there’s one thing that’s worse and that’s banks making a loss.”
And how easy it would be for the big four banks — with annual profits around the $4 billion mark — to inadvertently slide from the black to the red side of the ledger. Australians’ hearts are bleeding for the poor banks.
Dr Brendan’s dig at those who criticise banks’ rate rises above the official rate for being cheap populists is especially hilarious. This is the man who has been engaging in the worst kind of cheap populism during his listening tour in a vain attempt to show that he feels the pain of middle Australians, when in actual fact he seems to feel the “pain” of uber-profitable corporations much more keenly.
GrodsThink Ep.29 (26/8/08)
