Wednesday, 21 May 2025 12:25

Debt monster

Written by The Hound

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OPINION: It's good news that Finance Minister Nicola Willis has slashed $1.1 billion from new spending, citing "a seismic global economic event" - Donald Trump's trade tariffs - and unsustainable debt, but with the Government reportedly borrowing $500 million a week, interest costs now exceed the combined budgets of Police, Corrections, Justice and Defence.

New spending will drop from $2.4b to $1.3b though, with Willis wary of the interest bill spiraling out of control.

She criticised "extravagant" wage demands such as the 12% claim by striking senior doctors.

Some commentators opined that savings are likely to come from stalled programmes and unfilled vacancies - not mass redundancies.

Your old mate reckons the public service needs to wake up and realise the country's coffers have been left in a right state and some spending demands are necessarily off the table for the foreseeable.

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