As catalogued in Julys Economic and Fiscal Update, and the recent June quarter national accounts, the costs have been enormous: thousands of businesses destroyed; over a million workers made unemployed or idle; the largest post-War quarterly fall in output; and $280 billion of additional net public debt by mid-2021, just federally.
That is largely water under the bridge, however. The question now is: what is the best way forward, particularly in next weeks budget?
The Treasurers recent remarks on this score are potentially concerning especially his announcement of a new two-phase budget strategy, under which fiscal repair is postponed until the unemployment rate is comfortably back under 6 per cent.
Certainly, governments addressing do…
Read the full article at: https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/this-debt-cannot-just-be-ignored-20200927-p55zq3
