Election spendathon puts economic security at risk

Judith Sloan’s article warning the Albanese government that the announcement by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s – that Australia’s AAA credit rating is at risk – should be taken seriously, not just waved away, is on the money (“Simply put, Albanese doesn’t have the faintest clue”, 30/4).

Rating agencies responsible for credit ratings and subsequent interest charges on debt don’t care about promises and lies and platitudes, just the actual economic numbers, which look terrible. Australia’s economy is in dangerous territory exactly because of all the Labor policies, and rating agencies know it.

With an entire cabinet having no work experience in the real economy and a never-his-fault Prime Minister, it is not a surprise. All the budgeted decade of debt will soon be at higher interest rates, requiring more taxes, if the government doesn’t change.

Ian Brake, Mackay, Qld

It seems ominously a reality that, because of Labor’s election spendathon, Australia will lose its AAA credit rating. Anthony Albanese has stated with blase aplomb: “Well, there is no suggestion frankly; the AAA credit rating is there” (“PM stumbles on AAA as Dutton fumbles big chance”, 30/4). Clearly, the Prime Minister has no understanding of the ramifications with his statement.

Albanese might well have reached into the drama archives of celluloid film characters, quoting Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind – “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” – in relation to the AAA standing.

Susan McLochlan, Caboolture South, Qld

Judith Sloan precisely summed up the Prime Minister’s “nothing to see here” attitude to S&P’s warnings about a credit downgrade.

Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers must have tin ears. Either that, or they are playing the electorate for fools.

Many readers of Sloan’s economic analysis wouldn’t be getting much sleep while thinking about the likely consequences of Labor’s fiscal ineptitude.

P. Reynolds, Gilmore, ACT

Nowhere in any of the federal election candidates’ policy promotions have I seen any provision for the sustainability of the Australian economy after the boomer generation has gone.

Profiles of Australian communities have changed. Reproduction rates are down to 1.3 babies per mother. Average ages of death are older. Working hours are more erratic. School students remain at school longer than when many baby boomers left school at their 14th birthday, often for a trade apprenticeship.

Unemployment rates were lower. Demand for many occupations was great but poorly supplied, with some places able to be filled only with post-war migrants. Most of these taxpayers are now retired or dead.

Which of the election candidates have demonstrated an understanding of the change in community profiles to deal with the looming gap in GDP and tax collected by the government from boomers?

Rosemary McGrath, Kensington, SA

With an election to be won and therefore the true state of the economy likely to be deemed irrelevant, why would Labor take any notice of a global ratings agency? With the loss of a AAA rating, as Judith Sloan notes, federal and state borrowings must become more expensive, and this will flow through to the private sector as well.

Standard & Poor’s has seen through the “off-budget item” ruse, which has enabled this government to confect a couple of surpluses while running up a mountain of debt.

Sloan rightly describes as laughable the rationale for “off-budget”, that these items will provide superior returns in the future.

These rating agencies are not fooled by such nonsense and look at realities such as net debt and the growth of government spending in the economy to an inordinate 27 per cent share.

But even when 10 years of deficit are now predicted, it seems that an unwitting electorate is on track to re-elect the wreckers.

John Morrissey, Hawthorn, Vic

Anthony Albanese’s economic policy is best summed up as borrow, borrow and borrow. This tried-and-failed Daniel Andrews economic recipe transformed Victoria into a fiscal wasteland.

Dennis Walker, North Melbourne, Vic