Ken Henry’s RSPT haiku

Advertisement

Yesterday former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry appeared in the below ANU video at the AFR in which he complained about the state of public policy debate (no arguments there), celebrated the fiscal response to the GFC (no argument there, either, beyond the FHOG, which wasn’t Treasury’s idea), mentioned in passing the challenge of the Australian dollar and went on to describe a personally defining anecdote about his old man, who was a logger, and Australia’s paltry royalties regime (no argument again).

Even in haiku form, it’s good to see Dr Henry back defending his proposed (and now corrupted) tax regime, the centre-piece of which was a resources rent tax to offset lousy royalties.

Less encouragingly, the video received just 200 views from front page AFR billing. Here’s is my ham-fisted haiku riposte:

Advertisement

public policy debate

requires forthrightness

to be effective

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.