Remember John Howard’s trademark niggling over those pesky words such as “sorry”, “regret”, “apology” and “responsibility”? Here’s Johnny on indigenous reconciliation.

JOHN HOWARD: “I committed the Government to pursuing reconciliation the night that the Government was re-elected in October of last year. I believe that this resolution will make a huge contribution towards the cause of reconciliation. It does not, as a resolution, impose a blame or a guilt on present generations for past misdeeds. But it does recognise the truth about Australia’s history.

MATT PEACOCK: It doesn’t say sorry.

JOHN HOWARD: No, well…

MATT PEACOCK: Is that important?

JOHN HOWARD: Well, no, what is important, Matt, is what is positive out of what was passed yesterday. I am not, like Aden Ridgeway, I am not going to get hung out about, hung up about this or that word or this or that expression.

And here’s Johnny on interest rate rises.

Well, I said I was sorry they’d occurred. I don’t think I actually used the word apology. I think there is a difference between the two things … I think we’ve been through that debate before, haven’t we, in the context of something (else) … I very much regret the interest rate rise. I’m sorry it’s happened. This word game about apologies and sorry has been invented by the Labor Party to divert attention from the fact they don’t have an economic policy to put downward pressure on inflation and interest rates.

New Liberal leader (sic) Dr Brendan Nelson has clearly taken lessons in the Howard art of word manipulation judging from this effort on the topic of inflation.

The fact is that we do not have an inflationary crisis. What we do have is an inflationary challenge that needs to be addressed and it needs to be faced.

Oh, I see. It’s a challenge and not a crisis. But why then, Bren-doc, does this challenge need to be addressed and faced? That sounds like a crisis to me.

There’s no inflationary crisis but clearly there’s an inflationary challenge that needs to be addressed. And in addressing that inflationary challenge it’s important that we take into account that our economy is slowing. We’ve had two official rate rises from the Reserve Bank since November last year. We’ve also had increases in interest rates from the banks outside official movements. We’ve got the full impact of the global liquidity crisis yet to affect and wash through the Australian economy.

Whoa! Settle down, Brendan! It’s a global liquidity challenge, not a global liquidity crisis.

Inflation has hit a 17-year high in Australia, as reported by NEWS.com.au. And just in case you had any doubt as to who NewsLtd was hoping you’d blame for it, this helpful composite image appears at the top of the story:

Memory lane … Various images from 1991, the last time inflation breached 4 per cent.

Subtle, huh? But did readers take the bait?

And how. Third comment into the thread reads:

This is what you get with Labour (sic).

Posted by: YoungLib 12:12pm today

And, of course, it’s mostly downhill from there. Thank you, NewsLtd.

I don’t recall The Australian ever being this critical when the Howard government (peace be upon it) was busy slashing funding to welfare programs and public services:

Labor razor gang slashes carers’ bonus

LABOR will scrap annual bonuses of $1600 paid to carers as its budget razor gang carves deep into welfare programs to cut spending and curb inflation.

It will replace the payments with a higher utilities allowance but will leave the sick and disabled and their carers hundreds of dollars a year worse off.

But I’ll let that slide for the moment and say I agree that this announcement is disgraceful. Full-time carers have it tough enough as it is, and were barely supported under the previous government.

Wayne Swan, get your fucking act together. Or join the Liberals.

Remember the last time that Steve Fielding said “jump” and Kevin Rudd said “how high?” I wonder if we’ll see it again.

Family First Senator Steve Fielding says the Federal Government should reduce the impact of further interest rate rises by cutting the tax on petrol.

[…]

“People are struggling to make ends meet,” he said.

“Petrol has fuelled inflation for the last couple of years. Now this is a significant problem, and it’s about time the Rudd Government really got a handle on this issue by cutting petrol tax.”

But do you know what the truly amazing thing about that story is? Fielding didn’t use the word “family.” Not once.

The government has spent all of today prosecuting the implausible argument that high interest rates are a sign of good economic management. Of course, it’s all the more audacious given the government’s pledge in 2004 to keep interest rates at “record lows.”

In fact, they promised the following:

And here is treasurer Peter Costello today:

Mr Costello says [the interest rates rise] is proof of good economic management, which voters should ensure continues.

“When you have low unemployment there will always be more pressure on inflation,” he said.

“You would always expect interest rates to be higher during a period of low unemployment than a recession.

So why did the government promise to increase employment, keep inflation under control and interest rates at record lows, when they now reckon that more jobs causes higher inflation which, in turn, causes higher interest rates?

They’re just making this up as they go along, aren’t they?