Australia on track, says Costello

THE Asian economic crisis in the late 1990s was a blessing in disguise for the Australian economy, according to the country's longest-serving treasurer. Peter Costello was in Hobart yesterday to address an Australian Institute of Management and Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry luncheon. Mr Costello told the gathering the financial crisis in 1997 was "an absolutely cathartic moment" as the region's economies failed. "But the good thing is, we learnt a few lessons and it is these lessons that are serving Australia well now," Mr Costello said. "The first thing we learnt was that you need to have well capitalised financial institutions . . . the second thing is you need a well designed, regulatory banking system, that is something we did in establishing a body called the Australian Credential Regulatory Authority. "We... [read full story]