Tony Abbott was lying through his teeth, as is his wont, when he claimed, prior to the 2013 election, that Australia was suffering under a ‘debt and deficit disaster’. The budget deficit for 2010 was 4.2% of GDP and improved each year until 2013 when it was 1.2% of GDP1. Upon forming government after the election, the Coalition government made such a hash of their first budget, that significant parts were dumped2. In part, as a consequence of that, budget deficits have been between 3.0% and 1.9% of GDP ever since1.
Australia’s government debt in 2013 was 30.7% of GDP. In 2017 it was 41.9% of GDP, and yet you never hear any Coalition politician bemoaning the increased budget deficit or government debt. This lying by omission is just another way in which politicians take the gullible voters for a ride. The disturbing thing about this is that few of the parliamentary press gallery seem to be interested in this either. That makes them complicit in the lie.
There was a disaster in 2013, and that was the election of the Abbott government.
Sources
- https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/government-budget
- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/may/08/how-joe-hockeys-disastrous-first-budget-fell-apart-brick-by-brick
- https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/government-debt-to-gdp
The really worrying thing about the above statement is that it is true. Politics aside we are getting ourselves into a financial mess. Neither the government nor the opposition seem to have any idea that eventually our creditors (whoever they are) will want their money back. As I understand it, the Chinese are in the same mess, which given that they are our major trading partner does not bode well for the future. We are basically heading towards maxing out on our credit card.
Jim,
The debt problem Australia has is still mild by comparison to some other countries. It will all go arse-up eventually.