The above heading is no exaggeration. Victoria has now collected deficits of 10bn for the year ending 2020, 15bn for 2021, and is on track for a deficit of another 15bn for 2022. That’s an aggregated deficit of $6,000 for every Victorian citizen on top of the already massive state debt and growing by 3k per person a year. Note, despite the spin by the media, this is not due to the pandemic- the state was hopelessly broke well before the virus.
The state has been propped up for years on a population scam- importing foreign ‘students’ (really cut price visa workers buying citizenship) who send most of their cash earnings home, and importing permanent residents who pay (if we are lucky) 30k each upfront in stamp duty, whilst then demanding 600k in lifetime infrastructure (most of which cant and wont be built because it can’t be afforded). If you can see the mathematical problem here, you’re not alone.
Melbourne, through the population scam, has gone from having some of the best, least crowded infrastructure in the world to being a crush loaded dump.
At the same time the Vic govt has run a short term population ponzi, it has flogged off most of the remaining state assets left after Jeff Kennett. The titles office has been flogged off, the Port of Melbourne as well now Vicroads (every public road in the state was privatized on the quiet in 2021). These are monopolies that we are forced to use (unless we never deal in land, never import anything and never drive on roads).
It’s a remarkable fraud. Had Jeff Kennett tried to sell the titles office, all public roads and the port, there would have been an outcry. But all it took was a few labor campaign spin doctors, a few wobbling chins virtue signalling with press announceables about social justice, apologizes to a stolen generation that didn’t actually occur in Victoria, and the ABC/Fairfax journalists were all delirious with delight, happy to bless State Labor as all ‘progressive’ while it flogged everything off to its private sector mates.
Why is it that the state debt crisis, which is about five times (even allowing for population and inflation etc) bigger than the Kirner crisis of 1992, is not a bigger story?
Because both sides are in on it. When John Cain and Joan Kirner blew the budget (minorly) in the late 80s/early 90s, they spent it on teachers and public works etc, all matters opposed by the conservatives
Now, the spending is basically bipartisan, its on giving Transurban whatever they want, the various construction companies that make ‘donations’ to both sides, the huge consultancy giants sucking up more and more government revenue for useless reports etc. The state liberal/labor/national parties are just hollowed out identical gangs of scamsters acting as fronts for property developer donations, seeking board positions and ‘consultancies’ with all the crooks donors when they leave power. So they are happy to all be on the endless gravy train to give themselves a rich retirement, while keeping quiet about all the corruption etc.
Oddly, there is still an army of public servants in Victoria, in fact there are more of them every year, together with endless ‘commissioners’; all producing useless annual reports, running diversity awareness seminars and never doing any real work. None of them can be sacked, anyway, and they know it, so they endlessly take ‘stress leave’ etc etc, while leaving the remaining work to the gullible few who think its honorable to work rather than just receive a salary for nothing. Most of the ‘work’, of course, is meaningless make work slop- writing implementation reports etc etc, organizing ‘diversity days’, as the state long ago flogged off any real productive assets (like train workshops etc etc). Please, don’t bother to apply for any jobs with these agencies, as you’ll soon learn all jobs in the public sector are ringfenced totally and absolutely for mates and relatives of those already in them, for life.
The whole thing will crash, is crashing, fully and totally. The public servants can’t be sacked (in fact they aren’t even prosecuted for theft). There’s not much left to privatize and of course there’s no revenue coming in from state businesses any more as they’ve all been sold.
Luckily, we’ve got the media, notably ABC/Fairfax, fawning over the ‘progressive’ Andrews govt and not discussing the hopeless debt situation, or the complete and utter privatizing fraud and corruption of what is really going on.
These media are easily tricked: a press release is issued regarding the (non existent in Victoria) ‘stolen generations’ issue ; the media rush to the ‘announceable’; a few possum skins are worn (for the benefit of the ABC/Age cameras); a few fake tears are shed and -voila! – the state is progressive! (regardless of what is actually going on the real, economic, world). And of course, all of the media, to a person, universally preaches ‘that we have to restart immigration’ (so they can keep the population ponzi scam going a few more years. feed the millionaire plus Vice Chancellors and keep wages down and slave labor up).
The state will collapse into debt, it’s happening now, unlike private debt, public debt falls upon the citizens. This, more than any rise in interest rates, is what will permanently hammer house prices and living standards in Victoria for generations to come.
But, the above is a real issue, in the real world, so please don’t expect to read about it in the media.