Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen is on the back foot today after his embarrassing display of ignorance regarding tax rates during an interview with Alan Jones last night. To make him feel better, we celebrate (or mourn) the worrying history of politicians not knowing their facts and figures.

John Howard: "Yeah, I've given you - well it's 6.25."

During his last and ultimately unsuccessful political campaign in 2007, prime minister John Howard incorrectly stated the interest rate level of the day. In a TV interview, Mr Howard told the questioner that the Reserve Bank's official rate was 6.25 per cent when in fact it had been increased to 6.5 per cent two months earlier. "Mmm," was the stiff response when he was corrected.

John Hewson: "If it is a cake shop, a cake from a cake shop that has sales tax, and it's decorated and candles as you say, that attracts sales tax"

John Hewson's absurd "birthday cake interview" in 1993 is perhaps the most notorious of all. While a debate was raging about the opposition's proposed GST, Dr Hewson was unable to explain how the controversial policy applied to the simple example of a birthday cake. The interview is widely considered to be a factor behind his losing "the unlosable election".

Annastacia Palaszczuk: "Pass"

Days before last month's Queensland state election, opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk was left red-faced after being unable to state the rate of GST in Australia. Most people would know it's 10 per cent, but in a quick-fire round of basic questions, it proved too much for the woman who would go on to narrowly win the premiership in a shock upset for the Newman Liberal-National government.

Julie Bishop: "The cash interest rate at present is 7 ... I'm just trying to think. Was it 7.25? I'll have to go and check that one."

Julie Bishop, then shadow treasurer and deputy opposition leader, exhibited quite some confusion in 2008 when trying to tell an interviewer the official cash rate. "It was 7.25," they responded, "but it was reduced by 0.25." Ms Bishop would go on to step down from the treasury portfolio in early 2009.

Paul Keating: "I'm still on the big picture ... and I may splash a bit of paint."

Paul Keating forgot to lodge his own tax returns in 1985 and 1986 when he was Treasurer. His excuse? Too busy: "My fortunes are tied up with the economy.. I'm still on the big picture, painting the big picture, and I may splash a bit of paint," he said. "I did make a mistake, but unlike the leader of the opposition, my mistake did not cost half a million people their jobs. My mistake did not retard the economy for 20 years. My mistake did not introduce a massive domestic recession, unlike his mistake which almost destroyed the fabric of the Australian economy."

Wayne Swan: "Who's got my chart?"

When asked in a press conference about his own inflation forecast in 2008, treasurer Wayne Swan spent more than a minute rifling through papers looking for the answer in what was an excruciatingly awkward display. Watching the vision, the relief when he finds it is almost palpable.

Kevin Rudd: "I think the high threshold kicks in, I think, at $175,000, then I think it cascades down the spectrum."

Aspiring prime minister Kevin Rudd gave this erroneous response in 2007 when asked to state the income threshold of the top tax rate. The answer he needed was $150,000 and treasurer Peter Costello was quick to jump on the gaffe, saying Rudd "couldn't even name a single rate ... a single threshold" and that the one he named "just doesn't exist".

Joe Hockey: "When Australians spend the first six months of the year working for the government with tax rates nearly 50 cents in the dollar, it is a disincentive"

Treasurer Joe Hockey, in a radio interview last month, bemoaned the "disincentive" of Australia's high tax rate. Whether he was exaggerating or misunderstanding, Mr Hockey suggested people pay about half their income to the government through income tax. The highest tax rate of 45 cents in the dollar only kicks in past $180,000, meaning just 2.3 per cent of taxpayers. Australia's tax-to-GDP ratio is about 30 per cent, including all taxes, state and federal.

John Kerin: "GOS...GOS...what's GOS?"

One of Australia's shortest-serving treasurers, John Kerin, couldn't recall what GOS stood for (gross operating surplus). Just under five months into the job in 1991, Mr Kerin fumbled the question in a cringeworthy press conference and was promptly dumped as treasurer by prime minister Bob Hawke.

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