The spin put on the poor Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) beggars belief. This is perhaps exemplified by the headline in the Financial Review as reported by apparent government apologist, Phillip Coorey. This headline was “Government shaves $23b off debt over next four years”1. This gives you the impression that the government has decreased the amount of debt the country is in. This is not the case, and as such this headline is a lie. What has actually happened is that the Government, in its 2017 budget, made a forecast that the gross debt in 2020-21 would be $606 billion. Now it is forecast to be $583 billion1. The spin they put on this is that it is a saving, rather than a cockup in the forecast. What the headline should have said was “Government forecast $23b off-beam”. However, that doesn’t go down well with the knuckledraggers who read only headlines.
When the hilariously incompetent Tony Abbott and his cohort from the Liberal talent puddle started whining about the ‘debt and deficit disaster’2 in 2013, the gross government debt was $257 billion, or about 17% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Now it is $534 billion, and about 30% of GDP, and it will continue to climb3. In addition, the deficit in 2014 was $2.8 billion, and now it is $23.6 billion4. That makes the debt and deficit disaster of Abbott and Hockey look like Shangri-La by comparison. So what does this government want to do? Give big business a tax cut, which will decrease revenue even more. This is of no consequence to the government, because, like the Republican Party in the United States, their main concern is to keep the cash flowing from their donors in big business, never mind the damage it will do to the budget and the nation’s future prospects. The rest of us can pay it off by working into our seventies, learning to appreciate the flavour of canned dog food when we do retire, and learning how to huddle together to keep warm.
Listening to the incompetent Scott Morrison attempt to spin this travesty as if it is some form of success is just another sickening instance of this government and its apologists lying to the populace.
Sources
- http://www.afr.com/news/politics/government-shaves-23b-off-debt-over-next-four-years-20171216-h05yl7
- https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/abbott-and-hockeys-debt-and-deficit-disaster,6943
- http://www.budget.gov.au/2016-17/content/myefo/download/2016-17-MYEFO-combined.pdf
- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-18/myefo-released-federal-deficit-improves-by-5.8-billion-dollars/9266820
