Responding to the crisis

• Benjamin Spies-Butcher
• Australian Review of Public Affairs

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16 August 2010The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) is now barely a blip on the Australian radar. It must seem another universe to those travelling from the United States or Europe. As they arrive, in the midst of a federal election campaign, they hear claims that the government is recklessly spending money, running up an enormous debt that will never be paid back. How much?, they would ask. As high as the US debt at 50 per cent of GDP. No, maybe the 75 per cent of GDP raked up in the United Kingdom. Surely not the 125 per cent of GDP that now threatens to crush Greece. No. Australian debt is likely to reach less than 10 per cent before beginning to fall (Treasury 2010, p. 4). It’s about the lowest in the rich world, with one of the fastest growing economies. How is it that the Australian government’s stimulus measures, internationally applauded for preventing mass unemployment, have somehow been transformed into an electoral liability?

Image: publik16 / flickr