That is what i meant baz, every thing else stands. What causes trouble is when borrowings exceed income, as householders would know.
Runner peter garret was referring to the coalition, trying to bribe the greens , to gain office at any cost. The greens do not trust toni, you could say.
We have the worlds best treasurer at the volt, so there is nothing to worry about.

Well, yes, lexi...but do you suppose the Australian economy can remain immune to the fallout from the second round of the GFC?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-1/central-banks-to-save-international-markets-from-eurozone-criis/3705454

Getting a surplus is much less important than how it is achieved.

I have no doubt that any surplus achieved by Swanny will be a smoke & mirrors job.

Lets face it, he only has the job because he's too hopeless to be a threat to his boss, this one or the last.

Lexi;
Everything you quoted is correct.
However don't confuse surplus and deficit with debt.
Deficit adds to debt if the spending it represents is paid from borrowings.

Don't knock Barnaby Joyce, he got made a laughing stock when he said
there was a risk of the US going into deficit, and he muddled billions
and millions.
He is the one laughing now isn't he ?
Other countries debt cannot be compared directly with the Commonwealth
governments debt because it does not include the states debt.
From what I have read the total Federal, state & local government and
their related functional organisation debt is something like
$700 Billion !
Getting near the magic $Trillion.

Just checked a couple of figures, I said;
but has now got up to $237 billion last I saw a month or two back.
That figure is wrong, it should be $219 Billion. It will hit the $250B
ceiling sometime next year.

Also when I said the US was at risk of deficit, I meant Default, ie
the point where they cannot even borrow to pay their bills.
You might remember the cufuffle earlier this year about their default.
It is still a possibility. Their debt has only got bigger.

Very strange, the solution to debt seems to be borrow more money, hmmm.

2007 and Labor, my party rode in to government on the back of Kevin Rudd.
In truth he carried some real dead weight over the line.
No one could have forecast the GFC.
Kevin was as he said, a fiscal conservative.
He helped by not just Costello's and Howard's full coffers but Ketting and Hawks ground work, [worth noting the opposition said we would go bankrupt because of Labor changes they rode on] .
Labor was/is tainted by hight interest rates and tall Paul's rat bag words the recession we had to have.
This overly cautious plan is to stop the conservatives claiming Labor can not handle the economy.
Disagree?
I hold the view, much as csteele has said, the NO coalition, its media Friends are wearying Australia.
As hard as it is to believe, mid next year if Gillard walks in front of that bus Labor is a real chance of a come back.
Ugly lies will not forever cover the truth Abbott is a far better trick cyclist than leader.