Gross debt has crashed through half-a-trillion dollars on the Turnbull Government’s watch for the first time in Australia’s history.

The Australian Office of Financial Management today held an $800 million bond tender, pushing up gross debt to a record $500.1 billion.

This embarrassing milestone comes despite Malcolm Turnbull claiming in Opposition that up to $300 billion in projected debt was “frightening”, “gigantic” and “an almost inconceivable level of debt”.

Hypocrisy aside, today’s milestone is even more astonishing when you consider just how quickly the Liberals hit it.

The Abbott-Turnbull Government has racked up gross debt $1.66 billion a month quicker than the previous Labor Government and net debt $511 million a month quicker – with no Global Financial Crisis to point to.

Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann have no one else to blame but themselves for their own fiscal failures.

Turnbull and his ministers promised to pay down debt, but instead they’ve blown it out at an even faster rate.

Gross debt shows no sign of slowing down, with the Government’s Budget papers expecting it to hit $725 billion in 2027-28 with no peak in sight.

Net debt is also projected to hit record levels over the next three years and the coming year’s deficit is 10 times higher than was predicted in the Liberals’ first Budget in 2014.

Better economic managers? Don’t think so.