The Fraser Government’s $117 billion Debt Explosion

 

When Malcolm Fraser became Prime Minister in November 1975, the Government sector had net financial assets – that is, there was negative net government debt equal to 2.7% of GDP.  Making an allowance for the lag of the new government to change policies, there was still negative net debt of 0.4% of GDP in 1975-76.

The Fraser Government, with John Howard as Treasurer for the bulk of that time, ended its time in office with net government debt equal to 7.5% of GDP in 1983-84.

With GDP in Australia expected to be approximately $1,558 billion in 2012-13, this level of debt is equal to around $117 billion in today’s dollar terms.

Mr Abbott recently said “prudent fiscal management is in the Coalition’s DNA”.  The facts suggest otherwise.

See Table 3 in the link for details.

http://www.budget.gov.au/2012-13/content/bp1/download/bp1_bst10.pdf