Ahh...the John Howard as "small government, fiscal conservative myth".
Regreattably the facts are that Howard almost completely squandered (what then looked like) a once in a lifetime opportunity to leverage the boom into long-term structral change in Australia. This was to be expected from an indvidual who was a disaster as Treasurer in the Fraser government and a life long politician who understood that politics is about staying in government first, and the long-term interests ofthe nation second.
He was profligacy made flesh.
But for the competence and discipline of Costello and the hard-heads in Treaasury, he would have pissed it all up against the wall.
Let's rememebr that over the period more than $50B in assets we sold off, the bureaucracy FTE grew by 60%, and government p.a. spending in real terms grew 20%.
Frankly, from a fiscal perspective, from about 2002 he lost the plot. As the fear of losing his grip on the top job kicked in, he resorted to type. A mining boom kicks off and he starts shovelling money out the door to all and sundry. I mean, industry assistance spending accelerated up when the boom was in full swing!
Costello could see it coming and had he manned up and challenged the worst excesses of Howard might have been curtailed.