I think there's a big problem with most voters remembering the Good Times under a Liberal government when we had a massive mining boom and the country was doing well. Now things are slowing down - I suspect the next few decades will be bumpy when China stops buying everything we dig up out of the ground.
Things could have been much better if we'd taxed the hell out of the miners, like Norway's Oil Fund.
We have the Future Fund but it's a joke compared to Norway's sovereign wealth fund.
There was plenty of tax money floating around back then but it was probably spent buying votes and posting budget surpluses so government could pat themselves on the back for being such good economic managers...
Things could have been much better if we'd taxed the hell out of the miners, like Norway's Oil Fund.