Just watch Labor get out the tax increase bazooka on Budget
night.
ONE of the nation's
top financiers yesterday joined the debate on the country's rising debt level -
describing it as dangerously high.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver also urged the government
to stop using economic comparisons to countries in Europe and the US to justify
a predicted 80 per cent blowout to $165 billion this term.
"It
just shouldn't be this high," said Mr Oliver, who said the
government hadn't taken advantage of the decade-long resources boom.
"If you take Ireland for example, it has had a similar
level of public debt to Australia in 2007 and only six years later, debt is
over 100 per cent of GDP."
Tax and spend – that’s all Labor know, but worse, there is
nothing to show for the spend…
GILLARD government debt levels are forecast to blow out by
80 per cent to $165
billion in this term alone - that's a whopping $14,000 for every
working Australian.
Analysis of budget documents revealed that, between the 2010
election and federal Treasury's update in October last year, the 2012-13 net
debt estimate rose $54 billion to $144 billion.
With Wayne
Swan having junked the commitment to a surplus this financial year,
Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecast Treasury would raise the estimate by $21
billion in the May Budget.
"The government is starting to develop form when it
comes to over-estimating the improvement in its budget balance," Merrill
chief economist Saul Eslake said yesterday.
Business Council of Australia CEO Jennifer Westacott said
federal government spending was "out of step" with revenue, creating
"a budget management crisis".
"If that doesn't change we are going to have a serious
public debt problem," Ms Westacott said.
Her fears were shared by Monash University professor of
business and economics Jakob Madsen, who said: "It's a dangerous trend and
it's at the wrong time. It's completely unnecessary to hand out left, right and
centre and the way they do it is not very clever."
The Coalition is focusing on a number even larger than net
debt - the total value of bonds and other securities issued by the government,
or gross debt, which has ballooned from $151 billion at the 2010 poll to $267
billion now.
The definition of a budget deficit is when Government
spending exceeds the funds the Government receives from taxation and other
revenue in any financial year.
2012-2013 Budget Deficit $??.?bn
- pick a figure anywhere between $10bn to $35bn
2011-2012 Budget Deficit $43.7bn
2010-2011 Budget Deficit $47.7bn
2009-2010 Budget Deficit $54.8bn
2008-2009 Budget Deficit $27.1bn
Wayne Swan has presided so far over $173.3bn in total Budget
Deficits.
Just add that to your list of reasons why Labor has to be
voted out on Sept 14.
Special thanks to Steve Hunter for permission to reproduce
his cartoons exclusively on Andy’s RANT!
Steve Hunter is a
freelance
cartoonist and illustrator
and lives in Buderim Queensland.
Follow Andy on Twitter
