Forgot to add, looking forward to the judicial inquiry into the HIP, which I suspect is going to unravel some interesting truths.

Maybe they will call AA as an expert witness to counter what will be overwhelmingly embarrassing realities in regard to Aust governance under Labor.

I heard an interesting factoid,

Australia grew debt at a rate faster than most European countries, which meant that the debt is skyrocketing.

I see that Australians are beginning to remember why Rudd was fired in the first place, and the polls are beginning to fall for labor again.

Hi Alan,

<< @Spindoc: Yes, Most European nations fared badly through the GFC. They wish they had effected similar stimulus spending in 2009-10 to Australia's.>>

Great answer Alan, now tell us what was the question again? It doesn’t take you long to start ducking the hard ones does it?

Throwing an ever increasing cloud of selective “information” at the converted might get them excited however, as always when push comes to shove you bail out on anything that requires you to actually have an answer rather bomb us with links and information.

Alan Austin>> 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?<<

I agree with your premise Alan, but I contend that our burgeoning record breaking $300 BILLION debt accrued in six years built the “mansion” of overpriced contracts and abysmal planning and management protocols.

We may not have the highest debt ratio to GDP… that goes to the Hawke Keating government, but in raw dollar terms we have triple the debt they built. The only reason we at are 20 odd percent of GDP now is because mining had set record dollar export figures. With the largest tax receipts in our history Labor has sent us broke, we live off others money.How rediculous is that, not rediculous to some it appears.

I will list some of the mansions you alude to Alan:

The BER where BILLIONS were overcharged by prime contractors,

Young lives and hundreds of millions stolen by the Batts scheme,

A 60 , 70, 80, BILLION dollar (who knows , they won’t tell us) NBN program for that is ill conceived, poorly enacted and way under roll out targets,

A failed Grocery Watch, a failed Fuel Watch,

Aboriginal housing scheme with spent budgets but no houses built,

Billions spent on a Dept of Climate Change that changes nothing,

Illegal boat entry costIing $12 million per boat/ slash Cancer treatment funding and national dental scheme,
Etcetera etcetera etcetera…

What are you defending Alan?….why are you defending Alan?

Hi Allan,

Reading through your responses I can see that most of where we disagree is philosophical.

A comment like this "Under Labor, overall taxes are lower and the disparity is skewed more towards those better placed to pay." To me suggest that I am a cow to be milked for all its worth.
So because I have motivation and a desire to better my personal environment, I must there fore be expect to support those that can't be bothered or unwilling to? Why not support a flat tax across the board for everyone? that would be a far more equitable solution than having the few pay for the many.
Before you think I am rich I earn $70k from which I must support my family. So I am not some high flyer, I would like to be, but the government (this is all governments) has ensured that I will be punished for being too productive.

Welfare nanny state, Just look at the rules and regulations that are in place to protect ourselves from ourselves. When i grew up i could ride in the back of a ute, When you did this you knew not to do stupid shite or you get a Darwin award, Now it is illegal to ride in the back of a ute, because you might get hurt. Is just one example.

What debt problem, Adrian? Did you read the article?
You want to use the $275B number for your argument, I use the $4.6T number as that is the real amount of debt in Australia, as all Australians are on the hook for the government debt and their own.
So using $275B is just playing with statistics and only showing a small part of the bigger picture.

End Part 1

Part 2
When you bought your house, Adrian, did you take out a mortgage? The day after, did you wake up say “Omigod! I suddenly have a terrible debt of $250,000! What an appalling money-manager I am!”
Or were you quietly satisfied that you were building your assets for future security?

Actually I did, I view a home as a massive consumption item, that is not an asset only a liability. Due to the way the money flows, out of my pocket not in. Being mortgage free just means that the liability is reduced. Also I often ponder what better uses I could have had for all that coin that I have tied up in it.

So definitely time to borrow and build productive assets.
This is not the role of government (unless you believe in Communism). It is the role of private enterprise and a free market.

When they start to rise will be time to slow the borrowing or stop it altogether.
When this happens it will be to late, Ever heard of make hay will the sun shines. The time to pay down debt is when the rates are low and the interest accrued is small, if you load up on more debt and wait till the rates increase then you will find that more of your money goes to paying the interest on the loan not the principle of the loan.

This is what happened to the Club Med countries. They kept borrowing until the rates went up and then found they couldn't make the repayments.