australia faces a decade of debt, page-10

RamPage01, I can't help it if you don't see the difference between paying off the debt by using good financial management, compared with just selling existing assets.

If Labor had of sold the assets, paid down the debt, and handed a $24b debt to Howard. Would you still see it as good financial management?

The article claimed it took 10 years for Howard to pay down the $96b. Howard just converted existing assets to cash, which just left $24b of debt.

So yes, it makes a difference and the article was in error implying Howard paid down $94b, when in fact he converted assets to cash.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul is hardly grounds to trumpet successful financial management.

However, Howard can take credit for paying down $24b in debt.