It is appropriate for me to report at this stage that I have returned from that trip convinced that, while there are some things we can do differently in Australia, overall by comparison to the United States we are doing well on a number of important fronts. Firstly, the key policy makers that I met with were most envious of the fact that the Australian government has been able, by taking difficult decisions and exercising fiscal discipline, to eliminate all of the $96 billion of public sector debt bequeathed to this nation under, in part, Kim Beazley’s stewardship as Minister for Finance.