Australia is drowning in debt. As of December 2025, gross debt is forecast to hit $993 billion by the end of this financial year. That is not a rounding error. That is a warning.
It gets worse when you add the states. National net debt is set to climb from $1,002 billion in 2025/26 to $1,257 billion by 2028/29.
Every dollar borrowed today is a tax on tomorrow.
National gross debt is projected to reach 57.5 percent of GDP by 2028/29, eclipsing even the COVID high of 56.3 percent. We are borrowing like it is a crisis, without the crisis to justify it.
Meanwhile everyday Australians are getting squeezed:
• CPI up 4.0 percent in the year to May 2026
• Housing up 6.5 percent
• Electricity up 21.1 percent
The cost of living crisis is real. Reckless spending fuels it.
Here is the number nobody talks about. Australia has recorded seven consecutive quarters of negative GDP per capita growth.
The economy looks bigger, but each person is getting poorer.
We used to know better. Australia ran fiscal spending rules from 1996 that kept governments honest, until they were abandoned in early 2020.
Discipline is not a fantasy. We have done it before.
Strong economic conservatism means:
• Living within our means
• Restoring hard spending rules
• Cutting waste, not services
• Leaving debt lower than we found it
That is not cruelty. That is stewardship.