1 April 2022
Frydenberg’s Budget Is A Spendathon, But Is It Any Good?
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
9 October 2020
This Massive Debt Is With Us Till 2080
“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.
7 October 2020
Debt To Hit $2.05 Trillion, 60 Years To Pay 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.
31 July 2020
The Rage Of The Economics Establishment
An article on these pages last weekend by this newspaper’s economics correspondent, Matthew Cranston, titled “We need reform like we’ve never seen before” revealed everything that’s wrong with what Australians are told about economics. And it reveals why many people were apoplectic when Treasurer Josh Frydenberg dared suggest there were lessons to be learnt from the success of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald
13 May 2020
The Economic Statement: Business As Usual Won’t Defuse Our New Debt Bomb
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg yesterday delivered a sobering economic statement to Parliament. In stark contrast to the premature “back in the black” celebration just 12 months ago, the Treasurer detailed the “significant increase in government debt which will take many years to repay”. In the absence of any meaningful scrutiny from the opposition, the coronavirus pandemic has effectively given the government
