Albanese government hides its deficits

The AFR’s Michael Read has done some great analysis on today’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), which showed that the federal government will spend a record $90 billion “off-budget” over the next four years, obscuring the true situation facing the budget.

This off-budget spending does not show up in the underlying budget deficit or surplus despite it imposing a significant cost on taxpayers.

“Experts have warned the explosion in so-called off-budget spending has hidden the true state of the federal government’s finances, reduced scrutiny of expensive promises, and added to inflation”, noted Read.

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.