The difference between the above statement and today’s situation is that it isn’t the State that is underwriting everything, its the Federal Reserve, as revealed in this important article: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice

While I certainly agree that the Oz government should pay off the debt as fast as possible - and a few good years like Howard’s final term’s ought to reduce the capital quickly (although there’s little leeway on long-term bonds, if Treasury issues them) - I sincerely doubt that Bernanke’s record leading into and during the Bush Admin’s GFC makes his advice credible and/or reliable. The ways in which trillions of taxpayer dollars were rained (monsoon downpour-like) on Bank and Industry CEOs and other serious suits, who then paid themselves obscene bonuses and threw lavish ‘conferences’, says anything positive about Bernanke’s financial foresight, due diligence or prudential thoroughness.