Greetings again,

@Rhrosty, re: “Hardly a problem if needed for income earning infrastructure, but a very big one if used for essential recurrent spending?”

Correct. One insidious iniquity is your Coalition and mendacious media decrying increased borrowings – but completely ignoring increased productive assets and overall wealth.

@AdrianM, Are you referring to the tax performance difference between the Coalition and Labor?

See here: http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?QueryId=21699

Taxation peaked in 2004. Since 2007, the tax take has declined steadily.

Are you arguing for a continuation, or reversion to the Coalition’s higher taxes?

Yes, the debt clock matches the IMF forecast – will peak this year, then decline gradually until 2017, then more rapidly.

But is this really sensible? With interest rates low and investment opportunities for future growth and prosperity, why not borrow more?

Ever bought a house, Adrian?

@Shadow Minister, re: “AA is trying to persuade us … comparing it with the EU countries that have suffered under decades of socialism.”

Australia has the best economy the world has ever seen, SM. Compared with every other nation ever.

Refer links provided here: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/we-really-must-talk-about-all-these-lies/

Re: “Considering tax revenue is about $400bn p.a. the debt is more than 50% of annual government revenue.”

Agree, SM. Nothing to worry about.

@Rhian: Yes, the data is in the paragraphs immediately following that quote – going right through to the third last paragraph.

The IMF is probably the most helpful source.

@sonofgloin:

Re: “Check this link for debt vs GDP, it goes back to 1989”.

Correct. But if you check charts going back earlier, they disprove your contention.

Re: “You may notice that our debts grow during the Labor governments and get paid back by Coalition governments.”

Partly true. But why is this problematic, if borrowing builds the economy?

Have you ever bought a house, Sonofgloin? Or delved a mansion from the living rock?

@Foyle: Mr Turnbull’s tax cut proposal simply didn’t work. That is the strategy most governments tried. It failed comprehensively. The strategy that worked fairly consistently – in Australia and Poland most notably – was maintaining taxes, but increasing infrastructure investment.

No?

Cheers,

AA

Hi Alan
I was not asking for the GDP data, but for who has said that the cause of Australia's comparatively strong GDP growth is its low debt.

We had a discussion on a similar point before, but the quote then was comparing debt before and after the GFC, which of course was correlated.

the billions spent on wasteful Green schemes could of cleaned up the planet many times over. Instead we needed to be seen as leaders of the 'greatest moral challenge of the decade. ' The only winners are those who have cashed in un the gullible gw believers. Now Labour having wasted billions have decided its all a scam anyway.

Only read the first part, very bias.

Debt.
I challenge you Allen to show me our $300billion odd in new assets.

I also challenge you to explain how the likes of the failed insulation, cash fir clunkers, fuel watch, grocery watch, live export debacle, the list goes on, were asset building projects.

I would also ask how do you consider the illegals issue to be a good thing.

As for the GFC, my tip is it's effect will all of a sudden disappear from labors radar, come September 15.

What ever way yo look at it, $300+ billion is a lot of money, especially considering it's been accumulated in less than six years.

Finally, if we are in such great shape, with low debt, why are so many of our retired tax payers doing it so tough?

After all, having contributed most of their lives, only to be expected to live on about $16,000 a year is hardly what I would call living beyond their means.

May I suggest you wake up to yourself and look at how the real people are doing.

But dont worry, because the real people will tell you on September 14.

It is remarkable that supporters of this author can say this:

"a domestic budget deficit outcome increases private financial wealth"

Tell that to the Yanks after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Incompetent governments can mask their lack of fiscal rectitude as this wretched ALP/Green does with such things as the NBN.

Still when the author says "why not borrow more?" the disciples can't be blamed for their own nonsense.

and yet Societe Generale’s Albert Edwards has a different perspective.

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/06/13/australia-is-a-leveraged-time-bomb-waiting-to-blow-socgen/

“We repeat the prognosis we gave this time last year that Australia is a leveraged time bomb waiting to blow. It is not a CDO, but a CDO squared. All we have in Australia is, at its simplest, a credit bubble built upon a commodity boom dependent for its sustenance on an even greater credit bubble in China. Yet even with Australia having enjoyed a commodity export boom it still managed to rack up a current account deficit of 4% of GDP last year! Australians have been living beyond their very ample means for a long, long time. Of all the economic bubbles I have seen over the last 30 years in this industry, this one is even more obvious than the rather prominent nose on my increasingly haggard face. And its ultimate fate is obvious to me too.