Howard 1; Costello 0
The most colourful moment on yesterday’s Insiders program was Howard’s revelation that the recently resigned Robert Gerard was Costello’s recommendation. I have bolded the key phrase in the following except from the transcript.
BARRIE CASSIDY: The Robert Gerard matter and now his resignation from the Reserve Bank, Peter Costello is talking nonsense, isn’t he, when he says Mr Gerard has not avoided a dollar of tax?
JOHN HOWARD: He is not talking nonsense. Look, I think Peter Costello has been very unfairly attacked over this issue. The procedure that was followed for the appointment of Robert Gerard is the same procedure that has been followed for all of the appointments that this government has made to the Reserve Bank board. Peter Costello and I were both wanting to find somebody with a manufacturing background and also we wanted to find somebody from a state other than New South Wales or Victoria because the allegations was that the Reserve Bank was too Sydney-centric or at the very least big state-centric. Peter came to me and said, “What about Roberts Gerard?” He is the largest employer in the private sector of people in South Australia. He’s a highly successful…
Howard deftly went on to say that nothing turned on it being Costello’s choice and that Cabinet endorsed the recommendation unanimously. Still the damage had been done. The knife had been plunged. Today’s papers are unanimous in their assessment.
Steve Lewis said, ‘John Howard has left Peter Costello high and dry with his carefully calibrated statement that it was the Treasurer who volunteered Robert Gerard for the Reserve Bank board. The Treasurer is fighting to defend his reputation and political ambition, in the first real scandal to mar his stellar frontbench career.’
According to Glenn Milne, ‘Costello’s supporters were livid yesterday at the performance of John Howard on the ABC’s Insiders program, accusing the Prime Minister of deliberately sheeting home to the Treasurer the blame for the indefensible appointment of Gerard to the central bank board. “It was one of the slickest pieces of ‘I’ll drop you right in it’ I’ve ever seen,” said one of those close to Costello.’
See also: Tim Colebatch, John Garnaut, and John Stone.
Perhaps not surprisingly, yesterday’s panel on The Insiders agreed that Howard was here to stay. Their reasoning was simple: Howard is relaxed and comfortable in the top job and Costello does not have the numbers in the party room for a challenge.
Postscript: As I have posted a number of times on this issue, and as it looks destined to be around for another 6 months at least, I have made it a category: Costello for PM.
