Government Has No Economic Credentials, It Can’t Read Its Own Budget Papers #auspol

Labor’s Jim Chalmers has accused Finance minister Mathias Cormann of either deliberately lying to Australians or is unable to read his Government’s own Budget papers properly after claiming the country’s fiscal position has continually improved under the Coalition.

Ahead of next week’s mid-year update, Mathias Cormann claimed on Sky News’ sunday Agenda “What we’ve done at every Budget and Budget update is to ensure that we don’t go backwards, in fact that we improve the position based on the effect of policy decisions.”

Mr Chalmers commented “That’s just plain wrong and directly at odds with what the Budget figures actually show.” Budget papers have shown that cumulative policy decisions over the forward estimates in the 2015 Budget and beyond have actually delivered a $10.9 billion fiscal deterioration.

“On the Coalition’s watch, net debt has blown out by more than $100 billion and continues to rise,” stated Mr Chalmers. The projected deficit for this financial year has tripled, while the deficit for 2015-16 was eight times higher than projected the day the Coalition took office.

“The Turnbull Government’s economic mismanagement is putting our hard-won AAA credit rating at risk.”

“Malcolm Turnbull and his economic team will have no one to blame but themselves if they lose the AAA, which will push up mortgage repayments and smash business and consumer confidence.”

“If this chaotic and clueless Government was serious about Budget repair and protecting our AAA rating, it would immediately ditch its $50 billion tax gift for big multinationals and the banks.”