http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nationa ... 6056371414WAYNE Swan is a tougher Treasurer than Peter Costello was in the final term of the Howard government, when the massive proceeds of the first mining boom were being passed on to voters as generous handouts.
If Labor were spending at the same rate as the Coalition was then, the budget would be heading for a deficit of more than $20 billion in 2012-13, rather than a surplus of $3.5bn.
New analysis of fiscal policy going back to the 1970s contains a shock for voters who generally rate the Coalition as the better economic manager.
In fact, Labor treasurers have been more frugal, with Paul Keating the only treasurer to cut government spending in real terms, when the economy was growing in the second half of the 1980s.
Mr Swan's effort at holding the increase in real government spending to 1 per cent a year between 2010-11 and 2014-15 would be the second best on record, if the budget projections hold.
Private sector economists have been generally complimentary of the Treasurer's budget. Bill Evans, the chief economist at Westpac, says the budget will create the sharpest two-year drag on the economy since 1970, because it will be detracting from growth.
But he says the toughness is relative -- it looks better on paper for Labor because the belt-tightening comes after the stimulus for the global financial crisis.
That was George Megalogenis. Add in Swan pushing for the TFT to be tripled as part of the ETS and his $22Bn cut of middleclass welfare and we have a first class, reforming Treasurer.