On the Path to Ruin

Australia's challenging future was laid out for all to see with the release of the latest intergenerational report.

It paints a painful picture of a country without effective leadership and an entitlement mentality that sets us on the path to ruin.

Before I get to some details, let's not pretend that these reports aren't intensely political documents and are often very wrong.

The first of these forecasts was released in 2001 and predicted a population of 25.7 million by 2050. We achieved that goal several decades early.

Far from being an achievement though, it was done on the back of outrageous levels of immigration that have been correctly described as a Ponzi scheme to prop up a failing economy.

If you don't know, a Ponzi scheme is a type of investment requiring new investors money to pay out returns to earlier investors. They inevitably collapse.

And before you think this is a problem on one side of politics, it's not. The immigration hustle started under Howard. He lifted the permanent migrant intake from 93,000 to 150,000 in 2007. It is now around 190,000 every year.

On top of that, we've got 20,000 humanitarian visas plus a giant rort involving international students.

The increase in permanent and temporary migration lifted Australia’s Net Overseas Migration (NOM) from an average of around 90,000 in the 60 years post World War II to an average of 210,000 since (including the negative years over the pandemic).

These policy decisions will add 14 million more residents here in the next 40 years.

That's the equivalent of adding a combined Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide to Australia’s current population.

How will that help our standard of living and the demands for health, power, water, housing and welfare?

It can't really, but the Intergenerational Report (IGR) says it is necessary to counter the ageing population. Essentially, we need to bring in new people to pay for the welfare of those here previously.

That's what I mean by it's a Ponzi scheme.

Despite this newfound prosperity promise, the IGR also forecast decades of deficits for the country. Deficits delivered by the NDIS, health, aged care and defence - all examples of out-of-control government spending and terrible policy parameters.

It also predicts the need for new and higher taxes.

I'd suggest the starting point for that will be targeting your superannuation. The government thinks your Super is theirs, so you can stand by for no lump sum withdrawals and superannuation death duties.

Maybe not next year or the year after that, but they look to be headed our way in the relatively near future.

And that'll just be the start.

It's often said Australia is the lucky country, and if we get out of the future mess our politicians have created, we'll be a very lucky country indeed.