biggest exaggeration of the campaign - bowen, page-39

"...As Joe Hockey said we have no more Assets to sell that's why Gross Debt is the Debt that matters and Net Debt is Smoke and Mirrors...snider"

Yet it was the Net figure Joe Hockey used when referring to his parties figures and Gross debt when referring to others.


snider, there are many ways Australia can manage the debt, a slash and burn approach is not the smart way.

Holding costs, inflation, growth, and income growth can be used to various degrees to manage a debt.

One example would be:-
1996 debt $95b and income of $124b = debt is 76% of income.
2008 debt $95b and income of $294b = debt is 25% of income.

So without paying anything off the loan the impact of the debt on income is reduced by 51%.

Obviously holding cost needs to be added to the equation.

But it shows how inflation and growth can minimize the impact of the debt.

Howard collected almost a Trillion dollars extra over his 11 years in government using his first year as a base. And government income more than doubled over this period.


Currently net interest is around $7 to $8 billion, even paying interest for 10 years, we would of paid around $80b. Which makes better sense than trying to come up with $180b while economically we are still a bit shaky.

Build the economy and service the debt, and the impact of the debt will automatically come down.



Disco Stu, you would be hard pressed to find any politician that hasn't lied. Joe Hockey was part of the initial post on this thread about debt, and as such was fair game for either his incompetence or a blatant attempt at deception.