Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

We may have a different view but the proposition is completely correct that, if you do not send off a cheque for $7.5 billion to those who hold the bonds, you will not be sending them off enough money. If you send off a cheque for $2.66 billion, you will have a riot on your hands because you will have completely underpaid them.

The reality is—and I think you spelt it out clearly—your income stream from interest is going to become a dividend stream. You quite obviously cannot net off the dividend stream and say, ‘We’re actually collecting money in dividends so we’re going to net that off against our interest expense,’ because they are two unrelated items. That might be how it is stated but it is stated wrongly, because Australia will have to find a cheque for $7.5 billion to send off to pay for the bonds. I believe that is an optimistic view and, I would suggest, undershooting the mark. I do not want to get into a discussion about the Future Fund and the movement of dividend streams and what prospective returns on dividend streams will be like if this recession pans out the way it is, but I am still very interested to know what you believe, as a guide, is excessive debt to be held by the Australian federal government.