Graham Perrett

Lawyer; teacher; husband; dad; author - 12th Fish/Big Fig/Solid Rock; and The Long Story. Retweets often a mistake.

[Griffith Asia Inst @GAIGriffith]

A personal reflection on Professor Colin Mackerras AO from longtime colleague and friend Colin Brown, sharing memories of Griffith’s early days and a friendship spanning more than five decades.
🔗 https://t.co/lKyoNqVLjD

[Graham Perrett @GrahamPerrettMP]

Well done Matt Renshaw. Long time between drinks but good Queenslanders are always well worth the wait.

[Josh Butler @JoshButler]

looking forward to cafe owners explaining why they "HAVE TO" put prices up 50 cents to cover the loss of an 8 cent surcharge

[Graham Perrett @GrahamPerrettMP]

@ALeighMP I just know you were very keen to bust a move.

[Graham Perrett @GrahamPerrettMP]

The fourth code in four days - Don’t disappoint @wallabies

[PunkAndNewWave @NewWaveAndPunk]

On this day in 1979, Paul Simonon of #TheClash did this:
Pics;
Pennie Smith
Yours truly

[Graham Perrett @GrahamPerrettMP]

@Terrytoo69 But what a way to go.

[Caught At Silly Point @atsillypoint]

Imagine you are 25 years old, batting for Australia in Madras. It is 40°C. The humidity is 80%.

By the time you reach a hundred, you are vomiting on the pitch. You lose control of your bladder. Your memory of the day starts to go blank.

You walk up to your captain and tell him you have to retire hurt.

Allan Border does not call for a doctor. He calls you a weak Victorian and says he'll send out a real Australian instead. A Queenslander. Greg Ritchie.

So you stay. You bat on out of pure rage, and you make 210. Then they help you to the shower, and from the shower to hospital, where you end up on a saline drip, around 8 kilos lighter than when the Test began.

And the match you nearly broke yourself for? Five days later, it ends in a tie. Only the second tied Test in history.

That was Dean Jones, 40 years ago today. One of the bravest innings Test cricket has ever seen, and the game still refused to give him a winner.

[Hesse Philosophy @HermannHessed]

“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald

[PunkAndNewWave @NewWaveAndPunk]

Born on this day in Ankara, Turkey, 1952: Joe Strummer (John Graham Mellor) #The101ers #TheClash #ThePogues #TheLatinoRockabillyWar #JoeStrummerAndTheMescaleros 👑
Pics;
Julian Yewdall
Ian Dickson
Michael Putland
Ebet Roberts
https://t.co/ds1IM3EROR

[Graham Perrett @GrahamPerrettMP]

TWO in a row! @TAuguston @StirlHinchliffe

[Graham Perrett @GrahamPerrettMP]

How good are the @NRL_Dragons

[Graham Perrett @GrahamPerrettMP]

Book signing at Dymocks in Brisbane city until 1pm. Very chill in one of the best bookstores in Australia. 📖 📕

[NRL @NRL]

Setu Tu scores the match-winner! 🔥 #NRL

Telstra Moment of the Match

[St George Illawarra Dragons @NRL_Dragons]

THE DERBY IS OURS ❤️

[Graham Perrett @GrahamPerrettMP]

@SpencerHowson my father and grandfather buried there

[Aaron Smith @aaronsmith]

Thank you, Dave. I appreciate you reaching out to ask what you got wrong.

The clip we’re discussing is less than 90 seconds long. What I’m about to do demonstrates Brandolini's Law: where the amount of energy required to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude greater than that required to produce it. Or, in this case, it takes around 600 words to correct 90 seconds of your economic fan fiction.

1⃣ Between 0 and 30 seconds

You begin by confusing government debt with the Future Fund and appear to suggest that the Future Fund can't exist along side Govt debt.

They’re different things. One can exist without the other, and in Australia they do.

Australia's Future Fund was established in 2006 with an initial govt investment of about $60B. Its first annual report, in 2008, showed assets of around $64 billion - not the $100B you suggested.

Then, at around 27 seconds, you talk about the Future Fund as though it ceased to exist (you used the word 'had' as in past tense).

It still very much exists Dave. In fact, it's grown every single year since it was created. Today it's worth around $270 billion, or over $330 billion once the other funds under management are included (eg Medical Research / Housing Australia / Drought).

So before we're even 30 seconds into the clip you've managed to confuse government debt, the Future Fund, its size, and whether it still exists.

That’s a lot of economic history to get wrong in under 30 seconds.

2⃣ Around 32 seconds

You then claim Kevin Rudd used the Future Fund to "flush money through the economy".

Again, that’s simply false. The Future Fund wasn't used to fund the stimulus. It wasn't used to build school halls. It wasn’t used for any of the things you’re describing. In your defence, you do briefly flirt with the possibility that you don’t actually know what you’re talking about. Sadly, it was a very short-lived relationship.

The GFC stimulus was funded through government borrowing.

For context, construction approvals were collapsing, more than a million Australians worked in construction, and the objective was to stop unemployment exploding during the worst global financial crisis in generations.

You're welcome to argue that was the wrong policy (but you didn't). You’re not entitled to rewrite where the money came from.

3⃣ At about 44 seconds

You say, "I might be wrong".

I concede you were correct during this part of the video.

4⃣ From 44 seconds onwards

You make a series of broad claims about the GFC response.

Yes, government debt increased. That's true.

What you omit is that Australia's stimulus largely went directly to households rather than primarily rescuing financial institutions, as happened in many other countries.

The aim was simple: keep people spending, businesses operating and Australians employed while global demand collapsed. It's known as counter-cyclical fiscal policy.

Whether you agree with it politically is your business.

The specific outcome for Australia isn't contested though - Australia was one of only two economies in the OECD to avoid recession during the Global Financial Crisis. There's no reality where that wasn’t a comparatively impressive outcome.

The money didn’t need to "trickle down". The entire point was that it started at the bottom.

5⃣ Government debt

Throughout the clip (and in life generally) you repeatedly return to the theme Labor is responsible for Australia’s debt (which btw is comparatively low).

Here are the actual numbers of net debt added by each Govt since 2007.

> Rudd/Gillard: about $190 billion over six years.
> Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison: about $366 billion over nine years, around two-thirds of which pre-dated COVID.
> Albanese: about $75 billion over four years.

Those figures don’t support the story you've been telling people. And that’s really the issue.

This isn't about getting one date wrong or misremembering one statistic. Nearly every claim in your 90-second clip turns out to be either wrong or misleading.

If you're going to publicly lecture Australians about economic history, the bare minimum expectation is that you’ve first acquainted yourself with it.

Because once the errors have been pointed out, as they have been to you multiple times, every repetition stops looking like an accident and starts looking like a strategy.

Given your very public coffee with Angus Taylor last week, perhaps people are entitled to ask what that strategy might be.

[Graham Perrett @GrahamPerrettMP]

@mattyhoran Buy the book!

[Graham Perrett @GrahamPerrettMP]

I’m just about to emcee the John Mulvihill book launch at Scrumptious Reads, 92 Arthur Terrace Paddington at 2pm today. Come for a wine and a yarn and to meet the author.

[Matty Horan @mattyhoran]

@GrahamPerrettMP Hang on. That's my year nine English teacher!