by god - check this out!, page-11

The number of spending decisions worth more than $1 billion climbed from one in the first Howard budget to nine in the last. The proportion of savings measures fell from one-third of budget measures at the start of the Howard era to 1.5 per cent at the end.

In its final year in office, the Coalition boosted the AusLink national roads program by $2.3 billion and announced grants for water conservation and water buybacks worth $10 billion over 10 years.

Well I wouldn't say the above spending was wasteful compared with Rudd spending.

And the line that Rudd's was necessary is a crock.

The IMF isn't that accurate if you read an article by the same author here.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/forecasters-repeatedly-get-it-wrong-20130108-2cerm.html