Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

It is a big day tomorrow; it is not a good day but it is a big day. Tomorrow, for the first time in the history of the Commonwealth, Australia will rack up more than half a trillion dollars in gross debt, which is a damning indictment of those opposite not just of their fiscal failures but also of their failure to meet the standards that they set for themselves, the test that they set for themselves. They told us that their reason for being was that they will pay down debt. Instead, we have skyrocketing debt not just gross debt but net debt, and we have deficits bigger than when they came to office—all of these sorts of things wrapped in together which give you a factual sense from the budget papers that we are discussing today of the depths of their incompetence and their mismanagement.

On that half a trillion dollars of debt tomorrow: we have $499.3 billion today and I am told there is an $800 million issuance tomorrow. So we will push through that $500 billion figure. It is worth remembering when you think about that $500 billion figure is that back when the member for Wentworth was the temporary leader of the Liberal Party he described projected gross debt of $300 billion—and let me get this right—as 'frightening', he described it as 'gigantic', he described it as 'an almost inconceivable level of debt'. Now we have a much, much bigger level of debt that we will reach tomorrow. The bad news for the Australian people is not just the interest payments that they have to pay on this debt but also the fact that half a trillion tomorrow is really just the beginning under those opposite. It will hit $606 billion by the end of the forwards. It will hit $725 billion at the end of 10 years. There is not even a peak in these budget papers over the 10-year horizon. It hits 725 and it keeps on rising. You hear those opposite bang-on all the time about debt and deficit disasters and all that sort of stuff. But they have been a bit quiet this week when it comes to debt because they own this problem that we have tomorrow.

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