would of left us with a lot more then 69 million in debt. Last year Australia cleared a debt that cost us 300 mill a year in interest repayments alone. I think people tend to only judge Howard by his foreign policy and forget all that he has done for the Australian economy, which will benefit us and our children and their children inshaAllah. I also disagree with some of his foreign policy. But also credit needs to be given on his great work. He can easily rate in the top 5 best Prime Ministers Australia has ever had. I would personally place him at number one. But in my short life I have not seen many PM's that I can compare him to. Maybe Aphrodite can give us better insight. lol chickenrice 07-Feb-2007, 10:00 AM OMG! before howard came in labour left Australia 69 million Dollars in national debt! Australia is now out of debt. dream on - it takes a little bit more nouse than just working harder to lead this country. Well, yes, Australia is now out of debt, so that makes it ok to turn our backs on refugee conventions the country is a signatory to, take part in an illegal invasion of a sovereign country that posed no threat to us on false pretexts, and leave an Australian citizen to rot in an overseas jail for five years without charges. But hey, as long as we are now out of debt, that's the most important