Sydney - Billion-dollar cash hand-outs to ward off a recession will keep the Australian budget in deficit for at least the next six years, Treasurer Wayne Swan said Tuesday. But Swan insisted deficits were "temporary" because he had a plan to bring the government accounts back into the black.
"The cycle has been lengthened by the dramatic collapse in demand globally," Swan said.
The treasurer was ridiculed by opposition Liberal Party finance spokesman Peter Dutton, who said his children would be grandparents by the time the debt accruing to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government is retired.
"When they say six years, that's for the deficit," Dutton said. "My children will be in high school by the time this government gets around to having surplus budgets but they will be grandparents themselves before this debt is paid off."
The previous Labor government, ousted by John Howard's conservatives in 1996, left public debts of 96 billion Australian dollars (70 billion US dollars) that took 10 years to clear.
The Liberals estimate it would take at least 20 years for any Australian government to balance the books.
"I have very grave douts - very, very grave doubts - whether Mr Swan or Mr Rudd will ever preside over a surplus budget," Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull said.
