skippy. wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2013 at 5:04pm:


And yet it was Costello who paid back Keating's massive debt, balanced the books and left politics having put together a considerable surplus, which Swan proceeded to plunder...

Armchair_Politician wrote on Jan 4^th, 2013 at 6:15am:


Its was the overheating of the worlds economy which fueled the China boom which was responsible for the flood of money coming into this country which paid off the debt. Boom times means debt reduction no matter whos in govt where as a global recession will always mean a reduction in a countries income and to keep the economy moving all govts begin to borrow again until the cycle repeats itself...economics 101 young fella.
Both Keating and Costello were excellent treasurers who set Australias economy up for the future even though both of them copped criticism from colleagues, the public and the media at the time.
If it wasn't for these two far sighted individuals you would be standing in line to beg for soup while your family lived in a cardboard box in the park because this country would have collapsed as soon as the GFC hit.
The Libbos here love to follow Abbotts simplistic and empty one liners instead of looking at the big picture and that is why no one takes them seriously.
Remind us of the changes Howard made when he was the treasurer of this country for the best part of a decade..coz I reckon he was the worse treasurer this country has ever seen.

philperth2010 wrote on Jan 4^th, 2013 at 7:38am:


The Libbos are forgetting just how depressed the economy was in this country under Howards first few terms of constant cuts and sackings..it was only when China began its massive building program and started growing at unprecedented levels that our economy began to recover from Howards mismanagement.
Without China Howard would have been as big a disaster as a PM as he was as treasurer and even the most feral of Libbo supporters wouldn't dream of giving Howard any credit for Chinas boom.