My local Liberal MP recently deleted a comment I left on her Facebook post. Then she blocked me. And all because I spoke an inconvenient truth.

Her post & my comment

Proof I was right

The deficit left by Labor

In August, before the election, the Treasury (not Labor) forecast we’d run at a $54.6b deficit over the next 4 years (p.1).

How Hockey added to the deficit

In December, after the election, Liberal announced a NEW forecast of $122.7b (p.1).

Treasury DID NOT sign off on this change

In Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson’s words:

PEFO [the original forecast] is the only document that the Treasury and the Department of Finance have their names on… All other documents are documents of the Government.”

So Hockey added $68.1 billion to Treasury’s forecast!

As you can see, Hockey has added $68.1 billion on top of Treasury’s official forecast ($122.7 – $54.6 = $68.1). He made no secret of it either; it’s stated clearly in his MYEFO document:

Why the massive change?

According to the government’s own figures (p.29), the difference was due to their policy decisions and “parameter and other variations”.

What were the policy decisions and “parameter and other variations”? According to p.34-35 of Hockey’s MYEFO, the main elements were:

spending measures associated with repealing the carbon tax

land transport infrastructure programs

implementation of border protection policies

a boost to funding for the Students First package

an $8.8 billion grant paid to the Reserve Bank of Australia

lower government revenue from tax (including forgone carbon tax revenue, which MYEFO says added $9.4b to the forecast deficit – p.93)

a change to the terms of trade methodology, reducing economic growth forecasts

a change in the projected unemployment rate

removing “uncertainty” re announced, but unlegislated, tax and superannuation measures

So there you go. Hockey more than doubled the forecast deficit by changing policies, forgoing revenue and making gloomy economic forecasts. Then he (and my local MP, Karen) tried to blame it all on Labor. All so he could justify his harsh budget (released not long after).

Cool, eh? ;-(

Post a message on Karen’s Facebook

If you’d like to post the truth on Karen’s Facebook, here’s the text (with a link to this post):