Australia is sleepwalking into an economic twilight zone with record debt and an acceptance that budget deficits are with us for the next decade, said Tony Greco of the IPA. Speaking on the latest Accountants Daily podcast, the general manager of technical policy said there was no appetite for budget repair and nothing in the larder for future downturns. "We normally try to get back to paying back some of that debt so we project budget surpluses," he said. "What's different this time round is no one's projecting budget surpluses to run down that debt – and that goes against history." He said alarms were already being raised with Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy speaking out soon after the election. "[He] gave a pretty frank assessment of the challenges ahead, and he himself was saying that we need to repair and build up buffers for future economic downturns," he said.