Here’s another picture that tells a thousand words.
Yesterday Barnaby wrote in The Australian about the annual Budget surpluses needed to pay back Labor’s ever rising debt ($1 Billion more today alone; another $1.8 Billion next week):
Let’s talk about the abundance of faith exhibited by Labor when it tells us of the eight consecutive $19bn surpluses that are required to bring the budget back into orbit when the continued stresses on the international economy are clear and evident, especially in Europe.
On the ABC’s Q&A program on Feb 15th, Barnaby pointed out that Labor’s “plan” to return the Budget to surplus is pure fantasy:
We have always got the view that you should try and reduce tax but the first thing, without harping on it, we’ve got to deal with the debt and because they keep racking up debt, that takes away our capacity to reduce your tax and there’s no other way around it. You either increase your revenues, decrease your costs – they talk about productivity and sort of the cyclical angel descending from heaven and making everything better…
Well, just what is the likelihood of that cyclical angel descending? And even if it does, can it produce eight consecutive surpluses of $19 Billion?
Decide for yourself.
Below is a chart of Australian Government Budget surplus / deficits, dating back to the beginning of the Howard Government. Source is the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Statistics section. Click on the chart to enlarge –
This country has never seen anything like eight consecutive years of $19 Billion surpluses. In fact, the Howard Government achieved it just 3 times… in 12 years… during an unprecedented mining boom.
Barnaby is right.
Barnaby Is Right 
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