Lapdog, the LNP's impulse is to censor opposing ideas in our democracy. They are acting as if they own the democracy.

How does this country improve if the incompetence of the LNP is our only voice as they silence others. As we also find out now, the Liberals have been putting pressure on financial institutions, going back 20 yrs, to toe the LNP line.

Michael Pascoe: Credibility of bank economists trashed by one of their own

And not just the prominent economists employed by banks –the equally publicity-prone economists employed by the big accounting/consultancy firms also copped an implied whacking.

Together, these are the people who provide the majority of “independent” economic commentary quoted by media.

Basically, our most influential private sector economists can’t be trusted to tell it straight, to be critical of federal government policy when it is warranted. They’ve been nobbled by political pressure.

As a prelude to calling out Mr Littleproud’s apparent willingness to force banks to lend to the companies that the Coalition favours, Mr Eslake recounted his experience of having his mouth shut by political pressure in 2002 when Peter Costello was treasurer and John Howard was PM.

In a speech to an accountants’ conference, he had criticised the Howard government’s “pretence that the goods and services tax wasn’t a federal tax and therefore didn’t need to be included in budget estimates of total tax collections”.

As Saul wrote, he was speaking “on an arcane topic to an obscure conference”: “After seeing media reports of that speech, the then treasurer Peter Costello phoned the then chief executive of the ANZ John McFarlane threatening (as McFarlane subsequently relayed his words to me) regulatory action which the ANZ would not like if I said that sort of thing again.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2020/11/12/michael-pascoe-bank-economists-credibility-trashed/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Morning%20News%20-%2020201112