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âDryâ advice on deficit, debt needed again
Itâs not quite the same situation as in the 1980s, says one of the original economic Dries. But once again, backbench MPs need to stick their necks out against the big-spending political budget.
John Hyde
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There are similarities and some differences today with the situation in 1983 when the timid and weak Fraser government lost to the Hawke Labor Party. From these, lessons might be drawn.
The most obvious similarity is concentration on re-election to the exclusion of attention to the immediate and more distant future. Some, but not all, elements of the need to look to the future are also similar.