The Coalition want to talk about the past or the future but never the present. Here are a few details from this year’s budget.
Net debt in 2014-15 is estimated to be $250.2 billion and the face value of CGS on issue (gross debt) is expected to reach a within‑year peak of around $370 billion.
When the Abbott Government came to power in September 2013, there was $270 billion in Commonwealth securities on issue and net debt was about $170 billion.
Far from the much touted “budget repair”, to date gross debt has grown by $100 billion and net debt by $80 billion. Over the forward estimates, the face value of CGS on issue is projected to rise to a within‑year peak of around $539 billion in 2018‑19.
The deficit for this year is estimated to be $41.1 billion with expected cumulative deficits over the following four years of $82.3 billion.
Nominal GDP growth in 2013-14 was 4%. In 2014-15 it is now estimated to be 1.5%. For some reason, Joe anticipates a rapid improvement estimating growth of 3.25% in 2015-16 and 5.5% in 2016-17.
Even though Joe is forced to tell the truth about current figures, he can’t help himself but perpetuate the lie:
“Gross debt in 2023‑24 is expected to be around $112 billion lower than the $667 billion inherited from the former Government.”
How can you inherit something that hasn’t happened yet?
Joe also has a little trouble drawing a graph as can be seen with the following offering from the budget showing projected CGS on issue. The spurious $667 billion debt projection for 2023-24 quoted in the 2013-14 MYEFO seems to have grown to about $750 billion according to Joe’s graph.
