Beazer's interest rate beat-up

Labor Leader Kim Beazley's attacks over the possibiity of interest rates rising in the next few months are a beat-up.

The U.S. federal reserve is considering a hike of maybe a quarter of one percent sometime soon, which may cause rates to rise by a similar amount in Australia.

Beazley seems to think this somehow means that John Howard was being economical with the truth when he campaigned on interest rates at the last election. Howard claimed that Coalition policies would be more likely than Labor policies to keep the lid on rate rises. Now that there is upward pressure on interest rates, Beazley is claiming that Howard has been "caught out".

So rates might rise to 6.25 percent as a result of external pressues, and Howard is to blame?

Give it a break Kim. It just doesn't make sense to anyone with at least half a brain.

All I can say is thank heavens we're not now suffering interest rates of 17 percent like when Beazley and Keating ran the country.

If you're going to try to be effective against the government, ask questions that are relevant. You don't do yourself or your party any favours making false claims based on questionable economics.