Re your post which included; "... Abbott will have a hard time reducing the debt but will cut ideas he sees as without merit. ..."
A gross government debt of ~$300b in an economy with a GDP of ~$1,500b [ie 20% of GDP] compares very favourably to other developed economies and is one of the reasons Australia has been afforded AAA status.
Of much greater concern to me is the record high level to which private indebtedness rose under John Howard's bubble creating era. At ~155% of annual disposable income it alone caused many people to panic as the full fury of the GFC swirled around the world.
As for Tony Abbott's debt reduction plan; I'm all ears but after 3.5 years in the job the silence is deafening. Not so all those $80b of unfunded forward commitments though!
Abbott has a responsibility to explain to mainstream Australians exactly what he will do as PM. Failing that he will indeed set the cat among the pigeons if he sets about the sort of counter-productive slash-n-burn witnessed overseas and in some of our LNP controlled states.
