Poirot, Costello saved us from the GFC, by having appointed a tough banking regulator previously, unlike American banks. He continued on with Keatings reforms, so the economy boomed.

Fortunately he not only paid off Govt debt, left a surplus budget and established the Future Fund, he returned the rest to taxpayers. Leaving any more for the next Labor Govt to pee up against the wall on yet another failure, would have been foolish.

Things like deregulating our wharves from the control of militant unions, were good for our economy, but not something that Labor would even dream of doing. Free trade agreements with the USA, were something we urgently needed, another big boost to our economy.

All Mr Swan had to do was sit on Costellos old chair and everything was in place for him to benefit from the work that had been done.

Australia sailed through the GFC, as our banks were healthy and the mining boom did the rest. Nothing to do with Labor, they just got the credit from those who don't understand how the whole thing works. Fair enough, as a housewife that is maybe not your strong point :)

Yar...Yabby,

Sure about that?

"Macquarie boss Nick Moore used both to full effect last week when he issued a dire warning to David Murray, the man heading the inquiry into the future of Australia's financial system.

Think twice about imposing new regulations on our banks to protect taxpayers from a collapse, Moore warned. Such regulations could backfire and cost the nation dearly"

"Missing was any hint of the frantic desperation of six years ago as Macquarie careered out of control, under siege from an army of steely eyed traders betting the bank would go down.

The panic took hold just a few hours after the collapse of Lehman Bros on September 15, 2008. What did Moore and his executives do? They went begging for help.

Freedom of Information requests by Sydney Morning Herald reporter Michael Evans and your correspondent back in 2010 uncovered a deluge of emails to federal government ministers, Treasury officials and the corporate regulator that began almost immediately after Lehmans imploded."

"What we do know is that the pleadings were devilishly effective. Within days, the government shored up offshore Australian bank debt with a taxpayer guarantee. And the corporate regulator banned short selling of Australian banks, a move that staved off the short selling attack.

Macquarie was saved. And so began the myth that the Australian financial system somehow was better and stronger than the rest of the world, that it alone survived the great global financial crisis where all others failed.

It is a myth now being employed as a dangerous argument as to why Australian banks should not be subjected to the kind of controls now being considered by global regulators.

David Murray, the former longstanding boss of the Commonwealth Bank, has been examining ways of shoring up the system in the event of a repeat of the 2008 financial system meltdown."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-20/verrender-debunking-the-great-australian-banking-myth/5825466

Err Poirot, Maquarie are of course largely a so called investment bank, rather than a deposit taking retail bank, there is a huge difference.

If you check your history, you will find that after HIH collapsed, there was a large investigation. Costello overhauled APRA, increased its funding and appointed John Laker to run it. Laker did an amazing job, even though our banks were not keen on the increased regulation.

For a complete explanation of our banks and the GFC, here you go:

http://www.afr.com/news/how-australias-banks-dodged-the-crisis-20091220-iw96e

Steel, to buy a $200,000 house will cost about $250 per week, borrowing at 5% and allowing $2500 per year for rates and maint.

Now while that may seem like a brilliant idea, the reality is that not too many people wish to live in areas like that, due mainly to circumstances like lack of work, no cafes and little in the way of conveniences, so while I accept these houses are out there, you are not comparing apples with apples my friend.

However, one thing you have identified, albeit by default, is that there is such a thing as affordable housing, so well done for that one.

In the mean time, may I suggest you rent your houses to the likes of pensioners, because the new laws state that if there is no work in regional areas, then younger ones have to move to where work can be found, or be cut off. I'm guessing its in at attempt to stop the three generations of dole bludgers from residing in the one far away sh1t hole collecting thousands a week for nothing. That privilege seems to be reserved for other certain folk, but I won't mention them for fear of being called racist.

Poirot, as Yabby says, these illegals, and they are illegals because it is illegal to enter Australia without a visa, are welcome to either return home, or move on. No one is forcing them to stay. Besides, they have passed other countries to get here, so either they did not try to enter there, or they were moved on. I guess you can't blame them because to come here with our piss weak welfare laws would be like winning the lotto for them.

So, when you do your recalculation, if you dare, don't forget to include the money spent on turning them around, on keeping them in detention and on processing them, especially the money spent on reducing the thousands left by Rudd that are now gone,because every red cent is money that was not needed until we undertook the failed Kevin 07 experiment.

Yabby,

I take your point about the increased regulation and our banks being in a better position than banks overseas.

However, the govt took steps to make sure confidence wasn't undermined at the time. The crisis was so severe that that sort of measure was called for - the govt acted.

"On Sunday the 12th of October, the Australian Government announced it would guarantee all Australian bank deposits and, for a fee, the wholesale funding of Australia's banks.

This was the first time such actions had been taken in Australia's history.

While the Australian banking system was in good shape — as at mid-October 2008, Australia's four largest banking groups were among only 10 that were rated AA or higher by Standard & Poor's — the Government acted to ensure the stability of the Australian financial system and secure flows of credit to the economy. Because other governments had guaranteed the borrowings of their banks, Australian banks were being put at a competitive disadvantage despite being in better shape than were their international competitors. There were also emerging signs of fragility among Australia's second-tier or smaller banks.

These financial stability measures effectively involved the Government taking on risk to ease consumer and business concerns about the financial sector and more broadly economic conditions. In this highly volatile and risk-averse environment where there was the potential for disorderly and irrational behaviour, it was essential that governments calmed the situation by temporarily taking on private sector risk."

http://www.treasury.gov.au/PublicationsAndMedia/Newsroom/Speeches/2009/Australias-response-to-the-global-financial-crisis

Plus all the other stimulus measures.

Attempting to overlook Labor's excellent handling of such a serious crisis - and say it was all Costello's regulatory nous is simplistic in the extreme.

(Btw, unfortunately, couldn't read that article as it's paywallled)

P.S. you forgot to include your obligatory personal putdown in your last post...tch, tch.

Poirot, it is a shame that you can't read the AFR article, for it explains the whole thing in detail, including the Govt guarantee. Yes the Govt provided a guarantee as global markets were nervous about any banks, given that so many EU and US banks were in trouble. That was of course easy to do, because our banks were in such good shape in the first place! So nothing amazing there by Labor and it earned them a cool 1.5 billion, with little risk, never costing them a cent.

Costello deserves credit, because he increased regulation and appointed Laker, who did a great job, well before the GFC. This at a time when there was pressure for more deregulation, as George Bush turned the US regulator into a toothless fairy and EU regulations were pretty slack, which is why the GFC happened in the first place.

Had Costello followed the global herd and done what they did, then we might really have had a mess on our hands. As it turned out, Labor got it easy, handed to them on a plate, by Costellos previous action and for that he deserves credit