spending

Australia led the world in handling the global financial crisis by acting fast with stimulus spending, to help save big banks from insolvency and to preserve and generate jobs. Australia also had a legacy of negligible government debt.

But both stimulus spending and the abolition of government debt have come at a price. Stimulus spending needs to be repaid, primarily from taxation. And the low government debt was achieved by withholding crucial funds from health, education, public transport, housing, infrastructure, disability programs and the transition to renewable energy use.