Stephen Mayne

Victoria, $160 billion, heading for $200 billion.

They're all borrowing on the federal credit rating.

And the biggest difference when I was a spin doctor was you could only borrow if you got approval from the loans council.

So the feds used to control how much states could borrow.

And as soon as they deregulated that and said you can borrow as much as you like, the global markets just said, no English-speaking government's ever defaulted.

It's risk-free.

And so...

You can just borrow with gay abandon, knowing that at the end of the day, the Feds will bail you out because Australia's got a good credit rating and the world rates us with the credit.

So sub-sovereigns can just go absolutely bananas, even though they can't print money if it comes to the crisis.

So all these states are basically, they should be getting reined in by the Feds and the Reserve Bank, but they're just getting away with it.

And it's a Labor mateship thing.

I mean, Albo's not going to come out there and say that Labor's being reckless in Victoria, is he?

Yeah, that's right.

I mean, that's the biggest.

We've got this massively lopsided federal system where the feds have all the money and the states do all the work.

And infrastructure spending in fast-growing capital cities is a massive burden.

You know, you look at all the hospitals and roads and metro rails.

It's a massive commitment.

And so the feds are increasingly topping that up, bailing it out, because the states just don't have the money to deliver that sort of infrastructure spending.

Yeah, that is right.