Shameless is as shameless does:
Former Treasurer Peter Costello has warned the Turnbull government not to do anything in the upcoming financial statement or budget that would endanger a return to surplus.
In a forward to a Centre for Independent Studies report on budget policy to be released on Monday Mr Costello says since he signed off as Treasurer in John Howard’s Coalition government in 2007 Australia has had ten years of budget deficits. Before that it had had ten years of surpluses.
All of the debt that he paid off as Treasurer “has been borrowed again”.
“People often ask whether it was worth paying off the debt given that subsequent governments have gone out and borrowed it all back,” he writes. “The only answer I can give is to say: just imagine where we would be if we hadn’t paid off that debt?
“Sure, subsequent governments have piled on debt, but if we hadn’t got the Commonwealth debt-free, they would have piled debt on pre-existing debt rather than debt against a strong asset position.”
Tax cut Pete should know. It was he that set up the structural deficits run over the past decade by running fiscal spending out of control with mass giveaways during the boom.
Still, better late than never.
