With billions of dollars of revenue pouring in due to a booming global economy, Scott Morrison and his Liberals have no excuses for more than doubling the nation’s debt, a new report has confirmed.
 
Deloitte Access Economics, in its latest Budget Monitor, has outlined the state of the global economy ahead of the Liberals’ mid-year Budget update, due within the next month:
 
“The rivers of gold are running, with the good news for revenues coming thick and fast. The world is growing at the fastest rate seen since 2011.”
 
But even with the rosy global backdrop, the Liberals have racked up record debt and left the Budget in a far worse state than they inherited it from Labor, which had a Global Financial Crisis to contend with.
 
The Liberals’ own figures show that, on their watch, net debt has more than doubled to hit a new record high of $354.5 billion and gross debt has crashed through half-a-trillion dollars for the first time ever in the nation’s history.
 
Instead of using the surging revenue from this global upswing to help pay down their record and growing debt, the Liberals would rather give tax handouts to those who need them least.
 
The Liberals are repeating the fiscal recklessness of the profligate Howard-Costello Government by baking in unaffordable, permanent income tax cuts at the expense of the fiscal buffers needed to prepare for another downturn.
 
Deloitte warned against the Liberals’ reckless approach, saying:
 
“The oldest mistake in the budgetary book is to take the good fortune of the moment – with revenues sprinting much faster than the economy – and assume that will keep happening.”
 
The Liberal Government has thrown out its budget rules and is no longer putting improvements in revenue towards budget improvement, but is engaging in heavy spending increases.
 
Deloitte also makes it clear that “the heavy lifting of Budget repair lies in revenues”.
 
Labor has made the tough policy calls and been upfront about the need for structural Budget repair, and how we’ll go about achieving it fairly and responsibly.
 
Because of our responsible approach, we’ve been able to commit to delivering bigger surpluses over the forward estimates and substantially bigger surpluses over the medium term.
 
Labor will not only invest in the things Australians value, such as schools, hospitals and infrastructure, but we’ll also ensure the Liberals’ debt is paid down.