how ken henry's mother saved australia

The Great American Financial Crash of 2007
was crossing the Pacific Ocean and heading
our way. Parliament was divided about what
to do. The Secretary of Treasury Ken Henry
was a dutiful son who always phoned his
mother on a Saturday morning no matter
how pressing his Treasury duties were.

This Saturday, Ken phoned his mother
and she had a complaint. She was
worried about money. Her branch
of the Commonwealth Bank had
run out of $100 bills. Other CBA
branches had none either.

So Ken phoned the head of the Note-Printing
factory near Albury and was told it could
not keep up with demand for $100 bills.

Ken knew that a run on banks was imminent
and a run on banks in America in the 1930s
turned a recession into a Great Depression.

Ken roused PM Rudd and Treasurer Swan and
they had a talk. How many Mums and Dads
were worried about their bank deposits?
Numbers were crunched and sums done.

Big Live Media Conference. Big Response:

Rudd and Swan announced an Unlimited Government
Guarantee on all bank, building society and credit
union deposits PLUS a huge borrowing program to
finance shovel-ready, labour-intensive public
works and infrastructure building programs.

And that's how Ken Henry's mother saved
Australia from the GFC recession that
engulfed many other developed nations.

But when payback time came for the borrowed
billions, big miners screamed "Socialism"
and poured millions into a "Sack Rudd"
media campaign that Julia Gillard and
Tony Abbott exploited for personal
gain to unseat Kevin Rudd who'd
helped to save Australia from
the Great American Recession.

Ungrateful sods aren't we.