It was an interesting experience to be part of the budget lock-up last week, but as I warned in my article, I could make mistakes under that time pressure — and I did. I’ll correct them below, but I want to open with a declaration that I never expected to make: that the best sense I heard spoken about the budget was uttered by neither Liberal nor Labor nor Green, but by Clive Palmer.
Speaking in the face of quite hostile questioning on ABC AM, he observed that Australia’s government debt level of 12 per cent of GDP was far below the OECD average of 73 per cent, rejected the hysteria that Australia’s anticipated deficits would lead to a debt ratio of 70 per cent, defended running deficits if they were needed to stimulate the economy or provide infrastructure or social benefits, and noted that our current government debt level is far below the personal debt level that most Australians currently carry.
Our debt at the moment is probably around about $300 billion so that’s… about two months of our activity. Is your personal debt less than two months of your activity? That’s what we are as a nation. You know, we’ve got debts which are less than one year of our total activity. I mean that’s not difficult. (“Budget based on a con: Clive Palmer”)
Spot on, Clive. Most of his points were made equally well by Penny Wong for the ALP in the Guardian, but this observation — that Australia’s private debts are far greater than our public –was unique to Palmer.
