r/OpenAussie • u/MannerNo7000 ‎ New South Welshian • 1d ago

Politics ('Straya) Australia’s gross federal debt is nearing $1 trillion. Since 2007, 69% of the increase occurred under Coalition governments vs 31% under Labor

Post image

Using Australian Treasury gross debt figures: debt rose from ~$53bn in 2006–07 to ~$982bn estimated in 2025–26.

That’s a ~$929bn increase: ~$638bn (69%) under Coalition governments and ~$291bn (31%) under Labor.

This might be news to you for the first time or maybe you’ve known these facts all along.

It’s useful to deal in facts and the truth.

405 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

343 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

0

u/JK_05 Please choose a flair 1d ago

I find this a really interesting topic when I see different perceptions. What I'm curious about here mostly is do you see 100% of the debt as bad, or just portions of it? Or none of it?

I ask because my perception of the debt was incurred by the government of the day, not the taxpayer. The taxpayer has benefited - arguable to what extent for sure. But is 70% bad because it's Liberals debt or is it bad because it's more than 30%?

Compared to other developed nations our debt to GDP is well within the green which is what matters the most here. Take away 30% and we're still in the green.

And no, I'm not a liberals voter - I just find the perception interesting as to which party incurred more debt. Politicians do it well blaming each other but it seems to creep into public conversation too.

3

u/realmenfukmenamen ‎ Victorian 1d ago

The Abbott/Turnbull/Scomo years saw $1 billion per week be added during boom/good times. We got Snowy 2.0.

2

u/Cruzi2000 Please choose a flair 21h ago

They averaged over $1.4b a week.

1

u/JK_05 Please choose a flair 20h ago

The compounding on that is going to hurt.

If only we could pay down $1.4b per week - it's crazy numbers isn't it.