A few days ago, I posted a blog suggesting that Joe Hockey was planning to lift the debt ceiling by 33% to $400 billion.

Hockey To Lift Debt Ceiling by 33%, and the Hypocrisy Level to an All-time High

I was wrong.

When you make a mistake I think the best thing to do is admit it and apologise.

It’s just been announced that Hockey is seeking to lift the debt ceiling by 66% to $500 billion. So obviously, he’s concerned that Labor will continue to waste money in Opposition. After all, the Liberals had a pretty good go at doing that.

Treasurer Joe Hockey says the Federal Government is increasing the Commonwealth debt limit by $200 billion to provide “stability”.

Mr Hockey announced the increase after Federal Cabinet met today to consider the debt limit issue and the details of the Government’s commission of audit.

“I announce today that the Coalition Government will have to increase the debt limit for Commonwealth Government securities to $500 billion,” he said.

“We are increasing it to that level because I’ve been advised that on December 12, the current debt limit of $300 billion will be hit.”

Joe Hockey said the last Treasury assessment, provided in the pre-election fiscal outlook, predicted debt would peak at $370 billion.

But he said recent trends showed it would instead exceed $400 billion.

The ABC, 22nd October, 2013.

Of course, this is to provide “stability”, whereas Labor raising the debt limit to $300 billion was a budget emergency. $40-60 billion of it is just “a buffer” according to Joe. Why we need a buffer when the Liberals are back in charge is yet to be explained. I mean, there was no black hole in the costings and every promise was accounted for, so why do we need to keep on borrowing money at an even faster rate the Labor Government.

But anyway, sorry everyone for misleading you the other day.