Its never black and white
Pass a Frozo
In your partisan diatribe, you fail to mention Seasprites! All of the pitiful savings mention by Brendan Nelson are a factor of 10 less than the monumental srew up that was the Seasprite project. Nor do mention other blunders like the inability to shift enough combat troops to Dili in 1999 (3 years after taking office)... Ain't politics grand.
Milton Freidman; was an advocate of smaller government, Conscription was un-economic, wanted to get rid of the Reserve Bank and pushed for the legalisation of weed. He was a truly great economist and probably the most influencial person in the last Century - so how is it you think the last lot aligned with his philosophy???