Sir,Patrick J. Byrne asserts that “in Howard’s last year … the federal Budget went into deficit (“Business leaders call for national investment fund”, News Weekly, March 5, 2011).This is wrong. The Howard Government left the federal Budget in surplus.The last financial year of the Howard Government was 2007-08. As the current Budget papers affirm, the Budget outcome for 207-08 was a surplus of $19.7 billion in underlying cash terms, and the fiscal balance was a surplus of $21 billion.The feder…
