Why does the Labor party allow the Libs to constantly denegrate them on economics. The labor party set up the current economic boom. The Libs have squandered a once in a life time opportunity to realy bring this country forward.
Instead we are languishing around while Asia is educating investing and setting them selves up for the future.
If we don't invest now in our future now Within 50 years Austalia will end up being the poor neighbour to Asia and a subserviant partner to the Asian way of life. WAKE UP AUSTRALIA.

carreyn1: I agree with you to an extent, but at least as much of it isn't the fault of government as it is the fault of government. Okay, I know government could reorganise tax concessions (and especially not just give people things like baby bonuses or tax cuts/refunds as cold, hard cash) or implement compulsory superannuation to the same magnitude that some nations do (I think I read somewhere that the Singaporean government makes people invest 30% of their income).

However, what role does personal responsibility play? Where does the squandered opportunity lay in this country? It lays in wide screen TVs, overseas holidays, huge mobile phone bills, lots of restaurant meals, 50% off clothing sales, etc. Sure, a lot of that drives the economy, but I think it's just a sign of how far the rot has set in that we'll all be in serious trouble if everyone hasn't maxed out their credit cards (and we'll certainly all be in serious trouble if we continue to do so!). The squandered opportunity is that despite economic prosperity, many (if not most) people in this country have spent it for now, instead of investing it for the future.

To me, what best sums all this up is those Commonwealth Bank ads that basically say, "don't worry if your children or grandchildren are going to be up the creek, go out and blow it all now".

Australia is indeed a profligate nation.

It concerns me greatly that we've spent the last decade using the savings of foreigners to finance our McMansions and plasma TVs rather than new export and import-replacement industries needed to actually repay our ballooning foreign liabilities. Howard should have addressed the current account deficit years ago, but the Coalition is content to pretend that it doesn't even exist.

Other industrialised nations entered the so-called "post-industrial" phase by developing into knowledge-based economies. In stark contrast, Australia de-industrialised and reverted back to the quarry and farm. I once read somewhere that it takes around 150 tonnes of iron ore to equal the value of one imported plasma TV. Based on such terms of trade, I suspect a fairly major reduction in our living standards will be well and truly inevitable once the borrowing stops.

carreyn1,to answer your history question,
Did the labor party set up the economic boom that Australia is receiving under the Howard Liberal governmnet.
The short answer is no.
The resources boom in Western Australia and Queensland are the result of the world shortage of resources.Nothing to do with the previous labor policies.
The South East Asian financial ecomnomies devaluations a few years ago was a tremendous benefit to the Australian economy and the after shocks are still being felt today in the influx of Asia investors into Australia.
The stability that our ecomomy enjoys today is not thanks to the Hawke,Keating retoric, but the sound ecomomic management of the Howard government.
It is so easy to disjoint history even within the space of decades,but the truth sometimes wins.

Brock, you've contradicted yourself. If Australia's economic boom is due entirely to an upturn in global commodity prices, then Howard can take no credit either.

It also appears that you're content to keep borrowing the savings of foreigners in order to finance Howard's massive current account deficit. "Don't you worry about that!" replies the typical Liberal. "The CAD reflects foreign investment in our economy." Sadly, most of the foreign capital inflow over the last decade has not gone into expanding our export sectors, but into non-tradeble sectors like the hyperactive housing market. Borrowing and selling off assets to foreigners may finance the CAD in the short-term. But what happens when foreign creditors start demanding higher interest premiums? We already have high levels of foreign ownership in our resources sector. What happens when it reaches 100% foreign control?

By the way, the US and the UK are our largest single sources of foreign investment. Australia should not expect a free lunch from Asian countries.