“At 10:30am this morning, Australia hit $1 trillion of Commonwealth debt for the first time in our nation’s history, that will only be paid off by higher taxes on our future generations”, Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson said.
The AOFM website currently reads $983.7 billion of debt on issue, which was last updated on Friday 14 August. However, this tally is only updated each Friday so does not reflect the actual amount of debt currently on issue. On Tuesday 18 August, the AOFM issued $13 billion of debt via syndication, taking the total debt on issue as at Wednesday 19 August to $996.7 billion. This is not yet reflected on the AOFM website because it will not be updated until Friday. The AOFM has announced that, on Thursday 20 August at 10:30am it will issue $4.1 billion of debt, taking the total debt on issue to $1,000.8 billion. On Friday 21 August, $6 billion of notes will mature, bringing the total debt on issue back down to $994.8 billion by the time the AOFM updates its website on Friday. Over the coming weeks, additional debt will be issued that takes the total debt on issue back above $1 trillion.
“Today’s debt is tomorrow’s taxes, and the debt the Albanese government is racking up is being spent as fuel for inflation making the damage so much greater”, Mr Wilson said
“The Albanese government cannot kick its debt, spending and inflation addiction, and until they do Australian households will continue going backwards”.
“This debt is funding Labor’s active inflation agenda which stokes inflation, taxes inflation and spends inflation in a vicious cycle that makes Australians poorer. It is crushing the real wages of Australian workers, and making everything more expensive at the checkout”.
“This debt has a $30 billion interest bill every year. Without it, it would mean about a $2,000 tax cut of every Australian taxpayer”.
“This government has been the beneficiary of around $400 billion in windfall revenues. Instead of using that money to pay off the debt, Jim Chalmers has used it to stoke inflation through excessive spending that is making Australians poorer”.
