Alan,
You wrote;
As Prof Stiglitz wrote, "Kevin Rudd … realized that it was important to act early, with money that would be spent quickly, but that there was a risk that the crisis would not be over soon. So the first part of the stimulus was cash grants, followed by investments, which would take longer to put into place. Rudd's stimulus worked: Australia had the shortest and shallowest of recessions of the advanced industrial countries."

Why does this matter? Two reasons. First, Australians are entitled to base their vote on valid analysis rather than the falsehoods rife in the mainstream media.

Second, according to the OECD, another severe downturn is likely.

Will Australians stick with the managers who took Australia from 12th-ranked to top of the world during the last downturn? Or switch to the Coalition whose proposed policies saw the nations which implemented them fare poorly?

My Comment; Hear! Hear!
I have been trying to say similar things on OLO for some time. I only have a science degree with a year of university economics plus fifty years of reading so do not rate well with editors, particularly as I oppose neo-liberal idiocy. Even the ability to get a distinction in second year university physics while working full time doesn't rate.

I credit the Rudd Government actions mainly to the group of four, Gillard, Tanner, Swan and Rudd and the first three have already been lost to the common weal due to the lies and stupidity of the right wing media and the nut cases on the Opposition front bench.

Australia will pay dearly if Rupert Murdoch and Tony Abbott win on 7th September.

Every Australian, except the racketeers, would benefit if the Labor Party were to take citizens into its confidence and educate everyone about the truths of Modern Money Theory as revealed by the blogs at New Economic Perspectives and by Australia's Professor Bill Mitchell. One of the better posters on NEP, J D Alt, is an architect! For economics what you really need is nous.

< What did Australia do differently from the rest of the world? Two things. Australia moved swiftly with huge cash handouts to families. While other regimes were wondering what was happening, the Rudd Government shovelled out billions to be spent however households wished. >

Alan, I can’t see that this was the thing that ‘saved’ Australia’s economy during the GFC.

As huge as this was: 3.3% of GDP, it was still only a very small amount of money on a per-capita basis. And I can’t imagine that everyone would have simply rushed out and spent it. Surely a large portion of the population just put it in the bank and continued on as normal regardless.

I think that Rudd was far too ready to blow an enormous chunk of our financial reserves at a time when things weren’t really going too badly. Surely such a significant action should be reserved for when it is really needed.

This is a big fear of mine: that as the economy worsens, which it is bound to do given that we seem to have no sense of sustainability or supply/demand balance in this country, all the easy options for dealing with it will be utilised early on, so that when the hard times really bite, we’ll have no national financial wherewithal to deal with it.

It is much more likely that Australia came through the GFC pretty much unscathed, and moved ahead in the international rankings in terms of conventional economic wellbeing, due to the combination of factors that you discuss in the first part of your article, rather than Rudd’s shovelling out of billions to ordinary folk across the country.

Alan and Foyle, it's great to see that you don't belong to the Liberal Rudd-Hackers and you give the man the credit he is owed.

Last night we saw the real Tony for a few seconds as he insulted our Prime Minister. He showed his lack of breeding, his skill at lying and obfuscation, his pedestrian mind, his subservience to the wealthy classes.

Rudd, despite his flaws, cares about the people of Australia. His time in the wilderness has made him a better human, a more consultative one. He deserves a chance to show his full potential.

Thuggish Tony will lead Australia into the wilderness and make the rich even better off by punishing the battlers!

Now I start to see your plan Alan.

You are spouting all this absolute rubbish to lure the nutters out of hiding so we can identify them.

What do you plan to do with them all, after you have them?

Scratching your funny bone today are you Graham? After reading the first three articles, I had to go check the calendar. I thought it must be April fools day.

Costello saved us from the GFC, as it was his policies, taken earlier, which set things up for us to be in such an ideal position. Our banks had a great banking regulator who had clamped down on them, unlike US or European banks, thanks to Costello appointing him. Our debt was zilch, as Costello had paid off our debts, which left money in the kitty to be spent, unlike other countries. Mining investment had started to boom, as he had set up the economy, along with the good fortune of increased Chinese consumption, for them to make long term investments. All that Rudd did was take the credit for that which Costello had set up

Lack of "Breeding" for stating the obvious, my the Left has become a copy of their "Top Hat" stereotype; Rudd is a mouth with a motor. The GFC was survived because at the the time, unlike most of the world, we lacked the "FC". Owed nothing (Sovereign) in fact money in the bank, strong banks and an outwardly focused economy deep in with China. Now as we go cap in hand to the money changers they will ask how will you pay, how many generations of your children will you enslave, what did you do with it last time?
Nine hundred dollars on ciggies, pokies and flat screens, vastly overpriced white elephants called School Halls (saved a bit by private schools spending effectively), burning down houses with ceiling bats, laughable energy programs (free, ineffective light bulbs, cornflake packet type surveys) and on and on.

What growth industries are the result of the last 6 years of Rudd / Gillard / Rudd genius? Illegal boaties with at least 4% funerals plus accommodation and keep for the chronically welfare dependent 95%, destructive windmills scarifying the countryside, increasingly faltering solar cells still being paid for, FTTH now obsolete, a ballooning and bloating "Public Service", closure and still birth of export industries including gas, aluminum, cattle, iron, coil springs and cars.