Alan’s facebook election 2013 instant quiz #15

There have been two extraordinarily costly blunders by treasurers in Australia’s history. Both extremely well-kept secrets.

One was 4.5 billion dollars in Australia’s reserves lost gambling on the foreign exchange markets. Yes, 4.5 billion.

The second was the sale of most of Australia’s gold reserves at near rock bottom prices just before the price rose spectacularly – giving more billions of dollars to speculators overseas.

Coincidentally – or maybe not – they happened under the same hapless treasurer.

He was:

(a) John Howard when Malcolm Fraser was PM
(b) Paul Keating when Bob Hawke was PM
(c) Peter Costello when John Howard was PM
(d) Wayne Swan when Kevin Rudd was PM

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Alan Austin Yes, the answer is (c).
1996 to 2007 was clearly the worst period of squandered opportunity in Australia’s history. Not just in economic management.
More info on the gambling losses here:
http://www.newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=984
And on the gold sales here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/reserve-banks-gold-sale-cost-us-5bn/story-e6frg6nf-1225985231872

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Note from Rowland: Search for Alan’s Facebook page for more of these…