Rebuild the Australian Economy:!:
You are kidding aren't you. In terms of rebuilding the economy all Howard did was finish the work started by Keating. Even Howard himself acknowledges the great things that Keating did for the economy in Australia. And if you want further proof you just need to look at the continuous run of economic growth, yes it last all of the Howard years and costello and howard were very good at highlighting that fact. But the run actually started after the recession we had to have. About 3 or 4 years before Howard got anywhere near holding the reins.
Personally, when the result is 14 + years of economic growth and an economy that has avoided recession, unlike the rest of the world, then I'm inclined to agree that it was the recession we had to have.