About
Unlike political comment from The Left, this blog is not all about me.
It is dedicated to collating news, articles, and information from around the world, in support of Australian Senator Barnaby Joyce’s courageous and lonely fight to raise public awareness of Australia’s impending debt crisis.
Please feel free to post links to any relevant information, or simply add your voice by commenting on the articles posted here.
UPDATE 8/8/11: Thank you to Scott Rochford for recognising this blog in his column for the SMH today – He Prophets Best Who Heeds Joyce
Disclaimer: This blog is a strictly private initiative. It is not endorsed, affiliated or connected in any way with Senator Barnaby Joyce, the National Party, any other Australian political party, or any special interest or lobby group.
Thank you sincerely for your comments about A very cruddy fable. Much appreciated. And I like Barndoor Joke very much even though I have to give him an occasional touch-up!! Satirists have to stick it up everybody! Have a ripper day, David.
Barnaby & Co; Please do not use light blue
characters on white background. It is very hard to read.
Light grey also should not be used for the same reason.
I know it has become fashionable, but I don’t think Barnaby is a slave to fashion.
Barnaby for PM !
Regards
Barry White
A little of Barnaby’s history on his involvement in the full privatisation of Telstra: http://www.badapples.com.au/
If its too long a read, Barnaby Joyce comes up roses, Helen Coonan, Telstra and the Department don’t.
Good site Joe. Now on my blogroll.
Please update your terminology. ‘The Left’ has recently re-branded. We are now ‘Up A Bit and Slightly Forward.’ Please use this term in future when you group people together.
Hey Dave just checking out your blog and you’ve picked a very interesting topic to be passionate about. While I agree that national debt is something we should discuss and debate and I believe strongly that we should get good value for money from government spending. However I’m less concerned about how much debt the government has compared to how much debt Australian families have.
If you can bare with some rounded, estimated figures there is something I’d like to bring to your attention. National Debt vs Revenue out debt is at about $220 billion and the tax revenue is at about $330 billion. About 66% Debt vs Income. Or 22% of Debt vs GDP.
Compare that with your typical Australian who typically has a debt to income ratio of about 150%. If the Government was to leverage up the way the Australian population has then up to $450 billion in debt would be considered ‘average’.
The reason why I’m putting it in these terms is because if you are getting a little angry thinking about what we’d have to do to pay off a $450 billion loan at 1-2% interest imagine trying to pay off an equivalent amount at home loan rates (6-7%). Or worse – credit card rates (18-23%).
Both parties recently renewed their long standing commitment to ignoring this issue when at the recent tax forum both parties agreed that there would be no discussion of negative gearing.
Joyce is right about this: Debt is a serious issue and if you don’t manage it then it will most certainly manage you. The problem is that he’s talking about the wrong debt. I suspect he’s doing so deliberately because talking about public debt lets him rag on government spending and score political points. It’s harder to joint the dots when it comes to private debt.
Sorry! This was a big longer than I expected! I think anyone who gets up and talks about these sorts of issues should be commended. We all need to be involved and keep an eye on government debt and government spending or else it will get out of control and you are doing your part. I’m just mentioning these other debt issues as food for thought and to give the issue of public debt a slightly broader context.