Alan Partridge, my initial post was about the error of the article giving credit to Howard of paying down $96b in debt, when in fact it was the conversion of assets that accounted for $72b of the reduction in debt.
The article also implied that the debt was all Labor's, which was also an error.
Howard did pay off the remaining $24b though through his management of finances.
The above were the points I initially made and the points I were elaborating on in my subsequent posts.