Apparently......

Reuters......dateline 27.7

The Australian Treasurer, Peter Costello, blamed the Whitlam Government for the blowout in inflation figures yesterday.

'The ghost of the Whitlam Governemnt can pick and choose whichever quarter it likes to intervene in. We have had years and years of success under my policies only to see this big government interference in my leadership aspirations...er... I mean.....sound economic management.'

Mr Costello cited shonky loans dealings as amongst the causes of the CPI rise.

'I have it on good authority that Kim Beazley, Gough Whitlam, Paul Keating and Jim Cairns were involved in shonky illegal loans dealings with a man named Larry. As a result, the price of a yellow fruit called a banana has shot up.'

Mr Costello added

'This Larry is the shonkiest of offshore brokers. What sort of former Government resorts to these underhand measures. Do I have to remind everyone of the jobs for the boys, faceless men, economic incompetence, kemlarrylani, Juni Morosi, big sending Labor days? Doesn't eveyone remember how we harved inflartion and stopped talking about Rhodesia midflight?'

Asked about his leadership aspirations Mr Costello was circumspect,

'I'm not buying into that one. John Howard is the leader. He is the man who brought us a fistfull of dollars (surely, years of economic growth, ed.) and that's not to be trifled with.'