Generally, the time to deal with errors in comments is while the thread is still active. However, last August one of the regular commenters made a point about John Quiggin saying that ‘true to form the professor opposed every major economic reform in the 80’s and 90’s and showed up to give evidence against Workchoices and workplace reform at a hearing appearing “ not as an economist”…’.

Recently, this was repeated in the comments thread of another blog, with an unflattering conclusion drawn from it, prompting Professor Quiggin to want a correction at the source (there is some dispute about where it started, but the earliest Google link is to this blog).

For the record, Professor Quiggin did not appear at a WorkChoices hearing, but instead signed a petition on the subject which referred to the expertise of the signatories, including in economics.

Update: JC has asked me to note that he made the comment in question without first checking its accuracy. He retracts it and apologises for the mistake. As he says, ‘it’s important that criticisms are based on firm ground.’