Labor’s $100 Billion Budget Trick: The Hidden Debt Australians Will Pay For

Off-Budget Spending: A Loophole Costing Taxpayers Billions

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is set to pump nearly $100 billion into off-budget spending over the next four years, funnelling taxpayer money into loss-making assets like the National Broadband Network (NBN) and the Whyalla steelworks.

While this spending won’t officially appear as a budget expense, make no mistake—Australians will be footing the bill.
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The Illusion of ‘Investment’ Spending

Governments love a good accounting trick, and off-budget spending is one of the most effective. By classifying certain expenditures as “investments” instead of expenses, Labor can artificially improve the budget's bottom line. The public sees a rosier deficit or surplus figure, but the reality is that debt continues to climb.
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Where Is the Money Going?

Labor is directing these billions into projects that have a track record of financial underperformance:

- The National Broadband Network (NBN): A money pit that continues to waste taxpayer funds with no clear path to profitability.
- Whyalla Steelworks: A struggling venture with uncertain long-term viability, backed by taxpayers despite market doubts.
- Other so-called ‘investments’: Various infrastructure and energy projects that are more about political optics than economic return.
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Debt Disguised as Progress

While Labor touts these expenditures as nation-building investments, they are ultimately adding to Australia’s gross debt. The government may not count them in the annual deficit, but future taxpayers will be left to clean up the mess.

Australians Deserve Budget Transparency

As a tax-paying citizen of Australia, you deserve the utmost transparency when it comes to the Federal Budget.

How will your tax dollars be spent?

Are the investments worthwhile?

Is the government of the day doing one of their political donors a favour by bailing out a failing business with your hard-earned tax dollars?

These are the questions you need to ask, and these are the questions the government must answer when they release both a state and federal budget.

Do not be blinded by budget trickery and off-budget tactics that make a budget appear beneficial to the people of Australia.

Question everything!

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