Finance Minister Simon Birmingham is confident Australia will retain its AAA credit rating after the government last week unveiled a big spending program with the release of the 2021-22 federal budget. When asked on whether the government would be responsible for a possible downgrade of its credit rating after the release of the budget, Senator Birmingham responded, “We are not expecting that to happen.” “The rating agencies themselves issued their own statements, in their own words, last week in which they were very positive about the government’s strategy in this budget and the approach we are taking,” he told Sky News Australia. The three main global credit agencies—Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch Ratings—all rate Australia as AAA, with the latter two issuing negative outlooks on the country’s recent performance. Credit ratings are important because a downgrade would see the cost of borrowing money from overseas markets by …