There are those who like to pretend that the Howard era was actually a debacle that was of no benefit to Australia. They’ll claim that the only way the Howard government
paid down debt was by asset sales and follow this with claims Howard had left the
country economically in bad shape.
So without the spin let’s take a look at the situation and
the numbers, in 1996 the Howard government inherited the $96 billion debt from the
previous Fraser and Hawke/Keating governments. To pay down this debt
the Liberals continued with the Labor policy of selling assets. $11 billion
worth of assets were sold outright and $53 billion in shares were floated for a
total of $64 billion that was used to pay down the debt.
$96 billion minus $64 billion leaves $32 billion, this
remaining amount was also paid down and not by the proceeds of asset sales. Not
only was the debt paid but there were regular budget surpluses and by the end
of the Howard government the Future Fund was in place holding $50 billion and
there was $20 billion in the bank that was providing the budget with $1 billion
in interest per year. If this was all solely down to the asset sales without
any real economic skill then the Howard government certainly knew how to
stretch a dollar.
During the nine years of the Howard government Australia functioned
as a welfare state, was running continued budget surpluses, unemployment was
low, the cost of living was at reasonable levels and the debt was gone.
Howard left the country in bad shape?
The facts and figures say otherwise.
Refer to http://www.finance.gov.au/property/asset-sales/past-sales.html
for information regarding the asset sales.
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