"you are acknowledging that this country is doing very well financially under Howard and a mining boom."
That's the complete opposite of my position.
My position on Howard is:
I acknowledge that this country is doing very well but Howard had nothing to do with it.
Howard and Costello's relation to the mining boom is the same relation that two blood-bloated cattle ticks have to a Brahmin bull.
Even if he had economic credentials (other than as a tax-fat parasite) Howard shoving kidnapped girls into electrified Ruddock cages so grown men can feel safe at night consigns Howard to the putrid carnivorium of totalitarian history.