Yes we had eleven years of very poor government chuck with their one claim to fame being economic management. I could never make out how they managed that when we had all time record taxation, a mushrooming current accounts trade deficit, and their only real achievement was paying off government debt aided by the sale of Telstra which any mug could have done. I mean it just continued on what Labor had started....selling off profitable government assets which is foolishness IMO. As treasurer Costello sold off most of Australia's gold reserves at a rock bottom price and them lost a billion playing forex markets. No wonder he is not getting job offers from private enterprise rolling in and now just sits in parliament doing nothing except pull funny faces. Mind you at least he kept Howard away from the treasury as he had been a disaster as Frazer's treasurer. Nice to see someone with sound economic credentials call it like it is. Good post. Dave R.
