Victorian Debt Clock

Live - Updating in real time

Victoria's General Government Net Debt

$165,760,000,000

Net debt as of , based on the 2025-26 Budget Update forward estimates.

Interest accrued today

That's $245 every second spent on debt servicing, not hospitals, schools or roads.

Debt per Victorian

$23,431

Debt per household

$69,349

All figures from the Victorian DTF 2025-26 Budget Update, ABS 3101.0 (Jun 2025) and Census 2021.

Interest Repayments

What Could $21 Million a Day Buy Instead?

Every day, Victoria pays more than $21 million just on interest. That money goes to banks and bondholders, not to services. Here's what else it could pay for.

239

years a median Victorian worker would need to earn what the state pays in interest every single day.

193 km high

Stack $193 billion in $100 notes and the pile reaches 193 km. That's almost double the edge of space and 648 times the height of the Eureka Tower.

13.2 MCGs

You could fill more than 13 MCGs with $100 notes, floor to ceiling, wall to wall.

History

How We Got Here

From $22 billion to nearly $193 billion in just over ten years. Here's what the numbers actually show.

Net debt went from $14.8 billion in 2014-15 to $155.6 billion by 2024-25, and the government's own forward estimates have it reaching $192.6 billion by 2028-29. The biggest jump was during COVID, from 2019-20 to 2021-22.

On average, actual operating spending has come in $15.6 billion higher than what the government projected. Every single budget has underestimated the real figure.

Each bar compares the actual average annual growth rate over the past decade (2014–25) against what the government says will happen in its forward estimates (2025–29).

Operating spending has actually grown at 7.2% a year on average, but the budget forecasts just 2.7% going forward. Capital spending has grown at 15.7% a year, yet the budget has it shrinking by 1.4%. Every budget has made the same optimistic call—and every budget has been wrong.

Projections

Where It's Heading

See where Victoria's debt is heading. You can use the government's own numbers, or switch on historical spending trends to see what's more realistic.

Scenario Apply historical spending trends (7.2% opex, 15.7% capex)

Interest Rate Sensitivity

4.80%

2.80% 6.80%

Net Debt 2028-29

$192.6B

Annual Interest

$12.2B

Daily Interest

$33.5M

Per Victorian

$27,132

Analysis

Five Reasons the Budget Can't Be Trusted

Ten years of budgets tell the same story. The numbers never add up.

The forecasts are always wrong

The government consistently forecasts lower spending than what actually happens. Operating expenditure projections have missed by an average of $15.6 billion per budget. Every single time, in the same direction.
The "surplus" ignores capital spending

The headline "cash surplus" leaves out capital expenditure, which has grown around 16% a year. So the government can claim a surplus while borrowing billions for infrastructure at the same time.
More debt means more interest

Any operating surplus is misleading when capital spending is left out. Net debt keeps climbing, and so do the interest payments, now running at more than $21 million a day. That's money taken straight from frontline services.
Federal grants prop up the books

Commonwealth grants for infrastructure get counted as revenue, which makes the headline surplus look better. But the capital spending those grants pay for doesn't get subtracted from the operating balance. The accounting flatters the real position.
Debt is being hidden off the books

More and more debt is being shifted into state-owned corporations like the North East Link State Tolling Corporation. These sit outside the general government balance sheet, but Victorian taxpayers are still on the hook for them.

Transparency

Sources & Methodology

Every number on this site comes straight from official government data. Here's where it all comes from and how we did the maths.

DS-01 / DS-08

Net Debt Levels and Time Series

Victorian DTF 2025-26 Budget Update. Net debt figures from 2014-15 ($14.8B) through to 2028-29 ($192.6B projected). Budget Comparisons sheet.

DS-02

Interest Expense

Interest_Expense.xlsx (from Budget_Takedown.xlsx Operating Statement). 2025-26 revised estimate: $7.72B, which works out to roughly $21.15M a day.

DS-03 / DS-04

Population and Households

ABS 3101.0 (population 7,074,468, Jun 2025). ABS Census 2021 G42 (2,390,232 occupied private dwellings).

DS-05

Cost Benchmarks

Budget Papers BP4 (schools $30M), ANMF Victoria EBA (nurses $91.5K), BITRE RR148 + PPI (roads $9.1M/km), SA Premier + PPI (ambulances $187K), ROGS 2026 Part E (hospital beds $1.62M/yr), VAGO Social Housing (housing $409K).

DS-06

Median Earnings

ABS 6337.0 Employee Earnings, Aug 2025. Median VIC full-time weekly earnings: $1,700 ($88,400 annualised).

DS-09 / DS-10

Projection Errors and Growth Rates

Budget Takedown master spreadsheet. Compares each budget's 4-year projections against what actually happened, from 2015-16 to 2025-26.

How the Debt Clock Works

The debt counter works out how much debt grows each second based on the gap between this year's revised estimate and next year's. For 2025-26 to 2026-27, that's ($176.20B - $165.76B) divided by 31,557,600 seconds in a year, which comes to about $331 per second.

The interest counter takes the 2025-26 annual interest bill ($7.72B from Interest_Expense.xlsx), divides by 365 days to get roughly $21.15M a day, then by 86,400 seconds to get about $245 per second. It resets at midnight Melbourne time each day.

Per-person and per-household figures divide the current ticking debt total by the latest ABS population estimate (7,074,468 from ABS 3101.0, Jun 2025) and household count (2,390,232 from Census 2021 G42).

The projection scenarios apply the historical average growth rates (7.19% for operating spending, 15.69% for capital spending) from the Summary Stats analysis to the base year, and compare them against the government's own forward estimates.