Good article Peter,

Many Australians have alot to thank you for your determined and successful financial vision.

I am sure deep down you do not believe we are a low tax country.

Business wise, any business with the scope to work internationally have little incentive to stay here @ 30%, especially with places like Malaysia and other who roll out the red carpet for business. As we become more global over the next 3 generations, we will have our eyes picked out with many using the incentives around the place.

Personally, this is not correct either. The lower middle who are broke every week cop the brunt with tax effecting their ability to eat, and as an income earner you only have to be moderately successful to be put over a barrel at the top marginal tax rate.

Well done on things, keep the cheshire cat glow for your achievements.

Now you can work on a micro level, reaching and helping every individual Australian by either a yearly tax christmas rebate, or by giving people extra in their pay packets every week. Then if you ark up on business, you can stand at the top of the mountain as one of the greats.

Best of luck

Gosh!

Peter needs to give some recognition that the settings enabled Australia to perform well were set by Hawke/Keating - they pushed us into the real world of the global economy - that is not to say JH and PC have managed things well - but it has to be said that that is the least we expect of a Government - people should never get too over blown simply by doing their job well when that is what we pay them for.

The other issue we need to contend with is the current account and the growing level of Private debt - approaching 400 billion - it has doubled while JH has been in the Lodge

Our low level of self sufficiency in the realm of Information and Communication Technology has contributed nearly 20 bill to our current account deficit - and that stuff is supposed to be underpinning our economic performance.

We might not be the poor white trash of Asia but we are still vulnerable and our apparent prosperity certainly is not reflected in infrastructure development, our parlous manufacturing sector education and training or health delivery.

While some of are better off we are paying for so much more out of our own pocket - and there are plenty who are no better off and still are required to pay more for services than ever before.

So while PC is singing the praises of his performance there is still plenty of work to be done

bring back 94 I didn't have a morgue and I was making a killing on term investments. Plus my job was more secure then then it is now.

A killing on TERM investments!

Ha ha ha. Lets say that you achieved more than a pittance return from them you should have made enough to pay off your mortgage, prior to your property doubling in value over the recent boom, or was it that you drew your equity and made personal financial decisions.

Dont blame the system folks. You relinquish the blame, you relinquish the power to change and solve things. We are lucky the Government kick started the market with incentives. This government understands property is the cornerstone of Australians wealth.

Dont be alarmed by debt levels, unless it is bad debt. I think it is great to gear yourself up and leverage, and this is the way to creating wealth and therefore a provisioned retirement.

What is alarming is that most under 25 are credit impared due to the rise of mobile phones, easy credit etc. This will hold the majority of our kids back from financial security. This is something that needs to be addressed, and is a rapidly growing problem.

You have done well, Mr Costello, but what happens when we run out of holes in the ground?
All we seem to do is export our ground[minerals] and import people from third world countries.
We have very little manufacturing bases, most of our manufacture was outsourced to countries with cheap labour, so what do we have left?
Prices of everything have skyrocketed, do you know the price of a leg of lamb? Yesterday I saw them at $27 each, and gas and electricity, not your worry, but the bills are steep. For an aged pensioner ,life can be grim in this lucky country.
You can do better.

Mr Costello, when will you create the conditions for some real investment in Australia? Yes you have presided over major labour and industry reform and computer-underpinned efficiency gains but there has been little change to the basis over our economy. Yes yes I know about elaborately transformed manufacturing growth exports etc, but our exports are underpinned by a removalist industry - shovelling Australia into ships and the income directed to an overblown, low skill, low value added real estate industry. If you like, exchanging resource for bricks.

What about encouraging people to save rather than taxing interest so that one's capital erodes due to inflation.

What about looking at the dismal efforts to promote value adding to our resource base with failures like using gas like the Pilbara Petrochemical Project, Syntroleum etc and failures like QMag and BHP's DRI project? Sure you might explain them away for apparent legitimate reasons, but Australia’s' investment track record is abysmal. Governments have spent close to a billion dollars in the past 15 years with no outcome. Why? No strategy, no tax incentives like the pioneer status in SE Asia. Where is the synergy-based visions for Australia rather than the pathetic little schemes to prop up real estate like for first home owners that was nothing more than a political feel good ploy.

What's going to happen to Australia when China's rural to city migration slows and underpaid workers no longer serve to supply us with cheap goods? I predict our dollar will hit 40 cents within three years.

We are lucky to be sitting on resources and that softens the resolve to take some proactive long term initiatives. Tax reform and real strategic development is what this country needs.

We don’t need to bask on the benefits of having cleaned up the country. The core of our wealth creation remains rotten.