MEDIA STATEMENT
20 August 2026
On the final sitting day of this parliamentary fortnight, Australians are poorer, as the Albanese Labor Government is set to drive Australia’s debt past $1 Trillion ($1,000,000,000,000) for the first time in our nation’s history.
One trillion dollars of debt, while Australian families are already being smashed by higher mortgages, higher power bills, higher rents, higher taxes and a cost-of-living crisis that Labor has failed to fix.
This Government has received hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue windfalls and still managed to drive the national credit card through the trillion-dollar mark.
Labor simply cannot control its spending.
Australians are now paying around $27.7 billion a year in interest, more than $52,000 every minute, just to service the interest. That is money that cannot be spent on hospitals, roads, aged care, defence or tax relief.
And Labor’s own Budget shows this is only going to get worse, with gross debt forecast to surge beyond $1.2 trillion by 2029-30. That is the legacy Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers are building for the next generation.
Every dollar Labor borrows today is a debt handed to our children and grandchildren that they must pay tomorrow.
The Coalition will put a limit on government spending, cut waste, lower taxes and establish a Future Generations Fund, banking 80 cents in every windfall dollar from high commodity prices to pay down Labor’s debt and invest in the infrastructure Australia needs.
Labor spends. Australians pay.
After four years of Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers, $1,000,000,000,000 is the number that tells Australians everything they need to know about Labor’s economic management.
[ENDS]
Media Contact: Brendan West – 0402 556 646 – Brendan.west@aph.gov.au
