Good sense from John Howard

John Howard gave an interview last night and as was spot on:

Asked what he would have done to combat the global economic crisis, Mr Howard immediately pointed to the abolition of Work Choices, saying that by overturning the controversial industrial legislation the Rudd Government had added to unemployment.

"Work Choices helped give us the lowest unemployment rate in 33 years," Mr Howard said.

"The biggest challenge that the Government now faces is stopping unemployment going too high and they are now, by dismantling our industrial relations reforms, they are adding to unemployment.

"If the name of the game is to protect jobs, why do you follow policies that destroy jobs?"

And as to what he would do to get us out of the recession:

The former PM, who lost the top job in 2007 to Kevin Rudd, said the Rudd Government's multi-billion-dollar stimulus packages had worsened the economic situation in Australia by increasing debt.

Instead, they should have followed policies such as a "payroll holiday", which would have encouraged business to retain jobs, Mr Howard said.

"I wouldn't have thrown money around and given cheques to people," he said.

"I would have actually said to the states, 'We'll give you, I think it is $16 billion collected throughout Australia for payroll tax', give them payroll tax relief for a year in order to lift the burden of payroll tax, and that would have helped firms to keep staff.