Abbott ought to "grow a pair" - and 'fess-up - that his scare campaign on carbon pricing was JUST THAT
It's past it's "use by" date as a political and election tool
( ... a very effective tool, at that) - and has no further purpose
Some wrecking ball that was! Australia’s first year with a carbon tax has ended with
inflation so low that it was only the carbon tax that kept inflation from falling out of the Reserve Bank’s target range.
The Bureau of Statistics reports that in the year to June, consumer prices rose 2.4 per cent on the raw data, 2.3 per cent after seasonal adjustment, and 2.2 per cent on the trimmed mean measure, which strips out the biggest price rises and falls to define underlying inflation.
That is low inflation by any measure. It shows the Coalition’s scare campaign against the carbon tax was just a scare campaign.
Bear in mind that before the carbon tax came in, Treasury estimated that it would lift the CPI by 0.7 per cent, and underlying inflation by 0.4 per cent. If that’s right – and some analysts looking at the data think
the tax’s impact was even less than that – then without the carbon tax, the CPI would have risen 1.7 per cent, and the trimmed mean by 1.8 per cent.
Inflation is now running at low levels, domestic demand has stopped growing and
wage growth has decelerated markedly. Away from the petrol pump, many firms will opt to absorb rising import costs rather than pass them on and risk losing business.
A rate cut Tuesday week should be a pretty safe bet. It would still leave Australian interest rates well above those in the rest of the West, but would probably give the currency markets a helpful nudge to sell the dollar down a bit more - as the Reserve would prefer.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/carbon-tax-inflation-fears-evaporate-...