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:
public policy debate
requires forthrightness
to be effective