Ryan Bridge: Beware the insatiable beast that is the State

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Feb 16, 2026 · 2m · transcript

It's like a hungry child screaming for more food, even though you've just fed them dinner and pudding.

Across the Tasman, Jim Chalmers, the Aussie Treasurer is facing high debt and deficit. They've managed to achieve the highest level of spending to GDP of any Government in 40 years, outside the pandemic. Sound familiar?

To deal with this, the IMF has just told them they should cut their cloth.

They've also suggested the Federal Government may need to bail out some states who are also weighed down by the Double Ds of post-Covid governance - debt and deficit.

Let's not forget this is the lucky…