How much will Rudd’s spending spree cost Australian taxpayers… just in Interest-only?
$48.488 Billion to 2013. With more to come.
That’s enough to buy a No-business-plan-No-cost/benefit-analysis National Broadband Network. With $5.5 Billion left over in loose change for, let’s say, a disastrous home insulation scheme plus the costs of fixing it afterwards.
Need proof?
I made the chart below using the data from the Government’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) 2009-10 Budget statements. It shows the government’s projections of Interest on debt for this financial year, and the following three years. These are the Total Interest* (not principal) repayments that Kevin Rudd has incurred, and we-the-taxpayers must pay back –
Interest on debt - Total $48.488 Billion
Interest Expense - MYEFO 2009-10, Appendix B, Note 10
Note: This is only the “Estimates” (2009-10, 2010-11) and “Projections” (2011-12, 2012-13) for Interest-on-debt, as at November 2009 when the MYEFO was published. With the Rudd Government still borrowing well over $1 billion a week, who knows just how big the Interest-only bill is now.
One thing we do know. We cannot pay it back.
* Total Interest includes $5.49 Billion in ‘Other financing costs’ – What exactly is that, and who gets it?
Barnaby Is Right 
Why do governments ever need to pay their debt back to zero?
Business people know that they need to borrow to build capital to invest in future growth. Why shouldn’t governments do the same?
Borrowing is only a problem if the debt burden increases past the capability to service it. The government of a prosperous country has no servicing concerns as money will continue to roll in as long as the economy remains strong. In fact, the government of a prosperous country has a responsibility to keep the economy strong by investing in capital. Yes, this means debt. But how else are you going to build hospitals? Save for tens of years?
“How else are you going to build hospitals?” By not blowing your money and wasting your workers on corrupted insulation schemes, corrupted building of unnecessary school buildings, and an unplanned NBN. That’s how.