Budget

The government’s much-anticipated 2022-23 Budget contains the usual set of massive spending programs characteristic of an election year. Many of these are warranted and arguably long overdue – such as the nearly $10 billion set aside to increase intelligence and cybersecurity capabilities (though this will only be realised over the course of a decade). However, most are largely political in

Interest payments on Commonwealth debt could become the third-largest spending item in just 10 years, behind only health and income support for seniors, according to new research from free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. The interest payment on debt could consume 7.5% of the Commonwealth Budget and cost $64.1 billion by 2030-31. “High and growing levels of

One might think animal spirits had gripped the Australian economy as a flurry of better-than-expected economic figures hit the newsstands before Christmas. But Australians cannot let the political and bureaucratic class off scot-free for the devastation they have caused in 2020, or for their unwillingness to engage in serious reform which will underpin our future prosperity. The Australian Bureau of

Yesterday’s Victorian budget was on-form for the Andrews’ government: it mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and now it is mishandling the economic recovery from the deepest recession in 100 years. And the contempt for democratic norms the Victorian government has shown throughout the coronavirus crisis has made its way into the budget.  It was the Andrews’ government’s incompetence in managing hotel quarantine, along with an inadequate contact tracing system, which

“Insouciance” is a word Australians don’t use very often. Maybe we should. It perfectly describes the popular reaction to this week’s federal budget and the news the country faces more than a trillion dollars of government debt. Australians are also insouciant about the jobs of a quarter of the nation’s workforce now being dependent on wage subsidies from the government.

Australia is unlikely to be debt-free until 2080 as a result of the lockdowns implemented in response to COVID-19. The much anticipated 2020-21 Budget does not even attempt to highlight a path out of debt and deficits, leaving mainstream Australians with little hope that the bill for the largest public policy failure in the nation’s history will be paid off

Modelling by the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, based on data from the Commonwealth Government Budget and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, estimates that: Gross Commonwealth government debt will peak at $2.05 trillion in 2045. Gross Commonwealth government debt will not be paid off until the year 2080. A Budget Surplus will not return until 2046.

Australia is emerging from the COVID-19 lockdown measures not as one, but two separate nations comprised of the economic, cultural and political elite embodied in the public sector on one hand, and mainstream Australia embodied in the productive, private sector on the other. The two Australias have emerged over time. Before coronavirus arrived in this country, those in the private

Politics in a stable democracy should be boring, even relaxed and comfortable. Yet since the fall of the Howard government in 2007 Australian politics has been exciting– almost a blood sport. The population is certainly not relaxed nor comfortable. Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister appeared well on his way to changing all that. Re-election looked possible, even likely. The shenanigans in Canberra

The IPA’s Simon Breheny and Daniel Wild dissect the 2018 Federal Budget and talk about why they are so disappointed.