Turnbull's Dream - Part 1

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Turnbull had a dream and in this dream, he called for a review of his near death experience in winning by only one seat in the election. "when has this happened before in history?" He asked his wise Treasurer Morrison.

Morrison went away and came back pretty quickly to say "it was the great Prime Minister Menzies who held on by also just one seat back in 1961."

"How did the great Menzies come so close - what was the main issue?" asked Prime Minister Turnbull. "Ah, I know that!" Responded Morrison. "Menzies had introduced a credit squeeze. He had asked the bank, the Commonwealth Bank, the only bank, to increase interest rates by 0.25% and restrict credit to businesses and people. He reasoned that the inflation was getting too high and needed this action" proudly responded Morrison.

Prime Minister Turnbull growled, "so before this election you knew that the great Menzies was only able to hang on by one seat because of a credit squeeze?" "Yes yes" responded Treasurer Morrison. A puzzled Prime Minister Turnbull "but hasn't APRA and the RBA done the same thing prior to this election, by stopping credit going to investors? Haven't they also asked the banks to take money from depositors, shareholders and investors to increase their capital base?"

"Yes, yes." Quickly responded the Treasurer Morrison.

Prime Minister Turnbull continued with a growl "You knew also that APRA and the RBA were encouraging the banks to charge people a higher interest rate if they were borrowing for investment?". "Yes, yes."Morrison quickly nodded again.

Prime Minister Turnbull's eyes widened "So Treasurer, you had the knowledge that we were duplicating exactly the scenario that caused the great Menzies to nearly lose power back in 1961!". "Yes, yes." Exclaimed the Treasurer not realising that it was a rhetorical question.

An amazing thing then happened. Prime Minister Turnbull left his chair and stood up, raising himself up and decided to become a man of action. "Treasurer Morrison" he yelled, "you are dismissed - you are the father of our defeat and you are no longer Treasurer!" The Prime Minister could hear his personal rating rise. "But, Mr Prime Minister, I was the one who turned back the boats and helped win the previous election."

The Prime Minister now getting more furious "that wasn't you fool that was the whole Abbot Government. You were simply following policy pushed on the department."

"You got me there Mr Prime Minister." Said a sweating Treasurer. "But look what I did for the budget. I attacked superannuation!"

"You fool, your department and you attacked superannuation and cost us the election," said Prime Minister Turnbull.

"How's that?" wailed Morrison. "Fancy introducing legislation which is retrospective and alienating all voters with the heinous act to backdate taxes to 2007!" he continued.... "what dumb idiot thought of the retrospective legislation?"

"Well, it wasn't me Mr Prime Minister, it was the Treasury department."

"Who?"

To Be Continued….

Written by Kevin Young

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3