The expected and minor improvements in the 2016-17 Budget position do very little to remedy the mess made of the nation’s finances by the Turnbull Government.

The 2016-17 Final Budget Outcome (FBO) shows the deficit came in more than three times bigger than predicted in Joe Hockey’s first horror Budget in 2014.

After the release of today’s numbers we still have a Budget in substantially worse condition than that inherited by the Abbott-Turnbull Government:

• Net debt has blown out by $147 billion under the Liberals, having ballooned from $175 billion in September 2013 to $322 billion in the latest FBO figures;
• Gross debt is at record highs, having crashed through half-a-trillion dollars for the first time in the nation’s history and with no peak in sight; and
• The Government’s own Budget papers show net debt will hit record highs this year and next.

Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann expect a pat on the back for a minor improvement in the Budget which is more about good luck than good policy.

If they genuinely cared about improving the Budget they wouldn’t be giving away $65 billion to multinational corporations and the big banks and a $16,400 tax cut to millionaires when the country can least afford it.

If they were serious about repairing the Budget in a fair way, they would adopt Labor’s sensible reforms to negative gearing, capital gains tax, and trusts.