Big A.D. said:Neither party has any intention of using the historically low interest rates we have at the moment to get cheap financing for the huge backlog of roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, airports and other infrastructure projects that we're going to need in the future.
There is two VERY good reasons for this!
Firstly, that bunch of fiscal pigmys known as the Labor party used "historically low interest rates" to borrow money to finance the biggest piss and pokie binge in Australia's history. Now spending on top of this will make low interest rates a moot point because the interest albeit low would in nominal dollars be unsustainable if we went on a further binge on productive infastructure.
I think I am right when I say that most that are intending to be voting Liberal at the next election would say that if we were sitting here talking about an election where the incumbent Labour government had got us 200billion in debt but as a result we had a high speed freight/passenger network, better roads/tunnels bridges, ports to alieviate the mining bottle neck, better water security/flood mitigation and better airports, and even an NBN to show for it. Then most would feel a lot better about the huge burden that they and their grandchildren are now lumped with.
Secondly, you are just as near sighted as politicians with a 3 year election cycle. Those "historically low interest rates" aren't here for ever. In times of low rates, we need to use that opportunity to pay down the principle so that when the rates turn north, the pain is all that much less. Also, paying down the principle will keep the downward pressure on those rates making it that much easier to pay off the principle....
We as a nation are a decade away from a very big fiscal problem- the retiring of the baby boomers. The generations behind them have to fund not only their pension entitlements and their own but the current debt and the deflationary pressures that these things bring. Let's not make it worse by adding more debt to the problem.