The economy is a dominant issue in the Election. From now until polling day, Independent Australia will outline some key facts on the economy that put the kybosh on many of the myths, lies and distortions being peddled in the election campaign.
This is the fourth in a series of short articles by leading economist Stephen Koukoulas, which will be published daily up until the Federal Election on Saturday 3 May 2025.
FACT FOUR: LABOR'S PRUDENT BUDGET AND ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT DELIVERS A $177 BILLION REDUCTION IN GOVERNMENT DEBT
When Coalition Treasurer Josh Frydenberg delivered the pre-election Budget in March 2022, his policy framework outlined a decade of huge budget deficits and escalating debt.
These were major problems that the Albanese Government, elected in May 2022, was left to deal with.
The following table outlines the budget balance forecasts from the final Frydenberg Budget and compares those results to the actual outcomes and latest estimates included in Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ Budget delivered on 25 March 2025.
The budget outcomes have materially improved, in part due to revenue gains from higher-than-expected commodity prices but also due to the prudent policy action of the Albanese Government to save those gains.
The budget improvement had an impact on the trajectory of government debt. Under the Frydenberg Coalition Budget, government debt was rising strongly and while debt is still rising, the pace of increase is materially lower under Labor.
These are the facts and they've never been more important than right now.
Other facts in this series:
- #1: In fact, Labor has inflation back under control
- #2: Energy prices are plummeting
- #3: Wage growth on the rise under Labor
- #5: Labor building on a better future
Stephen Koukoulas is one of Australia’s most respected economists, a past chief economist of Citibank and senior economic advisor to an Australian Prime Minister. You can follow Stephen on Twitter/X @TheKouk.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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