Return of the linker

The Australian government faces a budget deficit of A$57.6 billion ($44 billion) for its fiscal year ending June 2010 and it is not likely to return to a surplus until 2016. In his Budget address on May 12, Australia's treasurer Wayne Swan estimated the country will have a revenue shortfall of A$210 billion during the four years to 2013, reversing the windfalls of the past five years when buoyant real estate and commodity prices helped to swell the Treasury's coffers.

Canberra's need to tap the