Sir Julius Chan says Goverment is "bankrupt"

New Ireland Governor and former prime minister Sir Julius Chan says the Government is "bankrupt" and can no longer deny this.
He said this at a fundraising dinner for prominent Lae personality, Sir Nagora Bogan, in Lae last Saturday.

 New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan addressing the crowd at Sir Nagora Bogan’s fundraising dinner in Lae last Saturday.

Sir Nagora announced his intention to contest for Lae Open in the 2017 national election.

Sir Julius said greed and self-interest was affecting the country.
“Much of the problem has come from mismanagement of the finances of Government,” he told over 300 people including politicians, business leaders, and representatives from different sectors of civil society in Lae.
“Something I learned very early – before Independence – was that a Government must be cautious.
“It must be conservative about its future fiscal situation.
“To put it simply, Government should never spend money it does not yet have – what I normally describe as potential wealth against real wealth.
“But this is exactly what we have done repeatedly in the recent history.
“As major new resource projects come on the horizon, we have been spending money as if it was already in the bank.
“It was not.”
Sir Julius said the country was going “bankrupt” because of such practices by Government.
“The result is that we are running a country in the red, not in the black,” he said.
“If we were business, we would now be bankrupt.
“Our Government is bankrupt.
“In the last five years, the Government debt-to-GDP ratio has soared.
“For the last three years, we have been at or above the legally-mandated mark of 35 per cent of GDP.
“We are projected to be above that legal limit again in 2016 and in our 2017 Budget.
“We have also run serious budget deficits every year since 2011.”
Sir Julius said the result was “no money”.
“We cannot pay our public servants,” he said.
“We cannot pay for tuition fee free education.
“We cannot pay for the Government’s promise of free primary and subsidised health care.”