Peter Costello is resigning from Parliament immediately, meaning a by-election before the end of the year.
We’ll never know now, but here’s a ponderer – would the Liberals be in any better position now if a (motivated) Costello had taken on the leadership after the election defeat?
Costello might not have fallen for the Godwin Grech email. But it’s hard to see that he would have done anything much different on the stimulus package. And the Coalition would be in even more of a mess on emissions trading.
And what of his record in government?
12 strong budgets?
He stated in public that the GFC was about to hit. Who else predicted it?
Just in case the Adabe’s maintaining why do I not feel sad?
My Horizon hasn’t yet eventuated,but,today,not because of Costello,but a man Fifty years of age,sold his house and was a Police Paymaster official,almost begging for a job.What hope have I! And I heard a thousand exponentially increasing here heres!? {Sydney Morning Herald}
You’ll hear it all in the bullshit hypocritical valedictories next time parliament sits.
Costello strongest support was always in the press gallery – he had negligible support in his own party (amazing for a treasurer in the job for over a decade) and was deeply disliked in the electorate.
I always thought he was deeply overrated. The media might have been impressed by his antics in parliament, but few others were.
Good riddance to that whole strange New Right generation – you spent decades working for a set of ideas that have turned out to be deeply misguided.
Now that the economy seems to be on the up, I expect to see the rest of the Howard cabinet heading for cushy seats on corporate boards.
Low altitude flyer disappears from radar:
How many by-elections now pending? Costello going…Fran Bailey going…Nelson has bolted. Turnbull can blather on all he likes about how convenient it would be to have them all at the same time. However, the timing is entirely in the hands of the Government. Perhaps we will see rolling by-elections scheduled over the next few months to maximize the pain? That would be amusing.
Costello is a piece of work.
Think revenge, think vicious pay-back.
Think small man and thwarted ambition.
I just love it. The pygmy pulls the house down.
The Grech scuttles off into the sunset
Costello goes at the worst possible time. Turdbull cuts his own throat and the fat guy gets to be king.
This is such a great script.
Huggy
Rationalist – not really. For such a lazy man, he was extraordinarily lucky. Of course, selling off the family silver (Telstra) certainly helped (in the short term).
“He stated in public that the GFC was about to hit. Who else predicted it?”
Na, SATP. My bet is that Tip wasn’t the only one to pick the cats before the final.
I generally agree with you Robert. Only improvement would have been over Utegate. At least Costello would have managed to keep his hyperbole to reasonable limits. Turnbull’s very slim chances of winning the next election were shot dead as soon as the email was proven to be fake. I’m not sure that Costello would have handled CPRS much worse than Turnbull. He would have been a much bigger liability on WorkChoices though. Remember that his main problem with WorkChoices was that it didn’t go far enough. The ALP would have had a field day on that come election time.
And what of his record in government?
I agree with PJK’s assessement:
“Of course, selling off the family silver (Telstra) certainly helped (in the short term).”
And didn’t he also flog off the family gold reserve at a fraction of its present price? Pure genius!
Slightly OT, but Turnbull has announced a press conference for 9:00 AM… I wonder if he’ll have anything interesting to say.
Will Costello take Rudd’s silver when he leaves the Parliament? Downer, Baird, Nelson…Costello?
Probably not. Costello, hammock-swinger, would not roll off unless he can see the ground ahead, and there is no hint that Rudd thinks he has any talent worth paying for.
And what if Turnbull throws in the towel in Wentworth? Too civilised to lead the Liberals, who apparently want a stern howardian daddy to knock heads together and tell them what to do, or a fat jolly fellow called Joe to mind the store for a while. The Coalition is not yet ready for Metro-Man, the Mad Uncles are still loose in the top paddock.
A new future beckons Malcolm. Join the real party. Work for the Rudd Government in New York on Climate Change. Richard Bulter enjoyed his time there, you would too.
Good riddance. Well past time, especially since he announced his own use-by date long ago. Unfortunately now he’ll have more time to write op-eds for the SMH et al.
Thanks Peter Kemp for that tip to PJK’s assessment. I just read it … hilarious!
Nope. He was rambling during the 2007 election about a “financial tsunami”, to be sure, but it was coming from China.
Costello ‘went’ nearly 3 years ago.
He has just taken a long time to get out the door.
Spot on Mark @ 19. Costello was initially an economic idiot who had to be trained by The Treasury. To be sure if Tip had his way we would have ONE minimum wage. Good riddance!
Peter Costello has failed somewhat to achieve his ambition to become Prime Minister. He has done a good job as Treasurer and fixed a lot of stuff up. He obviously isn’t going to waste his time working for the Government and who blames him. Big showdown on the way is there?
It’s a pity he’s going, as he’s the current government’s greatest parliamentary and electoral asset.
We’ll miss you, $weetie!
I for one will miss the possibility of a government led by Abbott with Costello as deputy …
The other way round would have been just as good, Fran, but even less likely, given $weetie’s disposition.
I’m reminded of Kurt Vonnegut’s quip, that he never expected to live in a country run by a Bush, a Dick, and a
ColonColin.Even so the big media event of Turnbull, and his pretend treasurers – Hockey and Coonan – I had to stop typing to remember their names – hads surely overshadowed Peter’s departure. Weep, weep.
Steve at the Pub:
just for the record, Costello’s warning of a “financial tsunami” related to a revaluation of the yuan causing a massive realignment of currency markets.
See link. It has subsequently been reimagined to be a prediction of the GFC arising out of US sub-prime issues. But read what he said – China is central to the tsunami in Peter’s premonition. Nouriel Roubini is the oracle you want. Or Krugman, to a much lesser extent (as he himself notes).
Which is not to say that he did a bad job as Treasurer. Surpluses were built up, which allowed for fiscal stimulus when things turned down. But if he wanted to be PM, he needed to seize the leadership from Downer back in 1995, or else hope that Howard died in office. His third option: to sit on the backbench until (probably) 2015. In the end, he suffered like Beazley: the timing was all wrong.
Its funny – I saw this post last night, went “wow’, immediately logged on to ABC news and saw the news story: “Fran Bailey to Resign”.
And another about how Talcum was now navigating the upper reaches of shit creek.
Not a mention of Tip!