Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The reason why we have government debt in Australia is a consequence of the world economic and financial crisis. As I have pointed out on a number of occasions—and indeed yesterday Senator Coonan, the shadow minister for finance, referred to this—the Commonwealth revenues have been significantly affected by the global financial and economic crisis, to the tune of $210 billion. There are two forms of debt: gross debt and net debt.