Steely, have you forgotten the melt down of the Asian tiger economies, which the coalition government slid us through, as if it was did not happen. This was far from what all the pundits expected.

Not panicking is something that you want in a PM & Treasurer, & that is just what they didn't do then, & wouldn't have done this time.

Unfortunately there are still a lot of opportunities in the near future for them to get us even further into the poo.

Dear Shadow Minister,

You write; "That you find it hard to swallow that Howard would implement a stimulus package owes more to your blind acceptance of the Labor line."

Where on earth did I say he wouldn't have implemented a stimulus package?

You are allowed on the odd occasion to drop the rhetoric.

Dear Hasbeen,

The Asian Crisis hit about 12 months into Howard's first term. While I'm not sure it can be considered even close to what is facing the word now there were some fairly strong and positive moves by Howard.

While it is a fair question to ask how much of Australia's resilience was due to the reforms of Hawke and Keating I don't think you can disregard the efforts of the incumbents of either situation.  

Katter gives Rudd and Swann a big rap for their role this time and I am inclined to take his assessment over many others for the reason I have outlined.

Csteele,

You said:

"I find it a little hard to swallow the proposition that Howard would have attacked the crisis with the vigour and expediency that Rudd and Swann did if he had won the election."

and

"Where on earth did I say he wouldn't have implemented a stimulus package?"

Thus a less wasteful approach to the GFC that achieved the same objectives is a bad idea? and paying 2x or more the going rate for school halls was a good idea? No wonder you vote labor.

Not only will this carbon tax effect manufacturing, it will effect just about everything we do.

Sure, the government is saying that the transport and ag industries are exempt, but what about the diesel rebate they're about to loose.

That alone will have a huge effect, as almost everything we use spends a portion of it's life on a truck.

The truth of the mattering that labor has wasted so much money, that we now have to introduce taxes just to claw back some of that waste.

So what's to say they don't go and stuff this plan up as well, after all, just look at their record, it speaks for it's self.

Dear Shadow Minister and butcher,

Gezz fellas. You two puppets are acting like you have the long hand of the Abbott machine firmly up your backsides. It is like the mouths are working but the brains are running to predesigned scripts written by Christopher Pyne.

Butcher has already gone tangent on us delivering the anti-carbon tax spiel. One can just imagine the code.

IF

Labour is given any kudos...

THEN...

Twist any positive into a negative...

ELSE...

Disregard the topic as irrelevant. Be sure to mention Carbon Tax, waste, stuff up, taxes, claw back.

Perhaps we might switch the brains out of attack dog mode and at least answer the question why someone like Katter, who I'm going to say has been a lot closer to the action and probably has a better handle on the political and economic history of this country than all of us put together, might think Rudd and Swann were 'brave and great men' for what they did. Is he just an ignorant fool in your opinions?

Csteele,

You are a fine one to talk. You have Swan's hand up your posterior flapping your mouth to the standard Labor mantra.

Whine Swan is trying to claim Kudos for applying basic macro economics from 1st year undergraduate level in applying a stimulus package, as though he was the first to invent it. Then he wants us to ignore the fact that far too much was spent, and the implementation was a fiasco.

For example the BER was done to protect the building industry from excessive job losses. The result was that so much was spent that the cost of building went up about 15% because of the shortage of available builders.

The pink batts was a good idea, that was so badly implemented that it killed people and burnt down houses. Then was shut down so abruptly that installers were left with unused stock and many lost their jobs.