Liquidating this once-in-a-century asset to repay debt or subsidise renewables now means we won’t be able to benefit future generations in 2040 or 2050 or 2060, which will be the focus of the Intergenerational Report.
Periodically, there are calls to spend the $202 billion in the Future Fund on causes that segments of the population find very worthy.
There was a call recently from the right-leaning Centre for Independent Studies to wind up the Future Fund and retire debt. Presumably this meant buying government bonds and cancelling them. Yesterday in this paper former Labor minister Craig Emerson suggested that part of the liquidated proceeds from the Future Fund could be used to provide subsidies for renewable energy and to build public housing.
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Peter Costello was Federal Treasurer from 1996 to 2007. He has written a best selling account of his time as Treasurer which is now published in paperback. He lives in Melbourne with his wife Tanya and three children.
