Costly blow-out in Australia's debt

Table 5 of this week's Treasury document shows that in just seven weeks between the May budget and June 30, expenditure on "legislative and executive affairs" blew out by a staggering $68 million. That was not Labor's doing.

Other unjustifiable spending by the Abbott Government includes its exorbitantly priced border protection regime and an $8.8 billion grant paid to the Reserve Bank which it didn't ask for and doesn't need. On the revenue side, equally damaging failures include abolishing the carbon and mining taxes without adequate replacement income. Those were not Labor decisions.

Last week's proof of the debt expansion follows confirmation after the May budget that Abbott and Hockey had more than doubled the projected budget deficits over Labor's levels.

The ABC's fact check unit showedin June that government decisions increased the deficits for the four-year forward estimates period by more than $68 billion.

There seems no urgency now to "balance the books, live within our means and return the budget to surplus as quickly as possible.' Gone are the dire warnings before the last election of debt 'spiralling out of control".

So if the debt was more than $202 billion in June and rising rapidly, what is it now, three months later? Well, we just don't know. The debt reports produced monthly since December 1999 have suddenly stopped.

The Finance Department was asked why this was, and when the next statement would be released. They replied:

"The last Australian Government Monthly Financial Statements were published in May 2014. The June data is incorporated in the Final Budget Outcome document. Under the Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998 the final date for the release of the Final Budget Outcome is 30 September... The July and August 2014 Australian Government Monthly Financial Statements are prepared and published after the release of the Final Budget Outcome."

How long after? We shall see.

Meanwhile, we now know what the extra debt is costing. A year ago, the Final Budget Outcome for 2012-13 – released by incoming treasurer Hockey – showed net interest payments on the debt were $8.3 billion for that year – the last full year Labor managed the economy. Labor's projected interest bill for 2013-14 was then $8.4 billion, according to Treasury and Finance's Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

The actual interest costs incurred for 2013-14, we discovered last week, was a thumping $10.8 billion. That's up 28.6%. (Table 9, page 15.)

So Hockey is not just borrowing more money, but borrowing more expensive money.