The Parliamentary Budget Office’s release of the National Fiscal Outlook confirms the Budget has gotten worse on the Turnbull Government’s watch.

Nationally, since the 2015-16 mid-year budget updates, the national fiscal deficit for 2015-16 to 2018-19 deteriorated by $14.9 billion, with most of it due to the Commonwealth.

The report also showed Commonwealth net debt was projected to increase to $356.4 billion in 2018-19, almost $10 billion more than the $346.6 billion estimated at the 2015-16 Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic Outlook. 

According to the report:

“This upward revision is due to the cumulative impact of higher projected Commonwealth budget deficits over the forward estimates.”

Australia’s ever-increasing debt is one of the main reasons why our prized AAA credit rating is at risk.

If Australia loses its gold-plated AAA credit rating from all three global ratings agencies, the only people to blame will be Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison.

This report is just more evidence of the Turnbull Government’s incompetent economic management and its inability to fix the Budget and protect our AAA rating.

Since the election, we saw confirmation in the Final Budget Outcome that the 2015-16 deficit reached $40 billion – eight times bigger than estimated at the 2013 election.  Net debt for 2016-17 has also blown out by over $100 billion since the 2013 election.

Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison continue to put Australia’s top-notch credit rating at risk by pushing ahead with a reckless $50 billion tax cut for big business while refusing to undertake structural Budget repair like that advocated by Labor, including reforms to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.