Scott Morrison came out of hiding today to announce his grand centrepiece for the Budget – changing around some page numbers.
The change means the Treasurer will move the existing figures for the net operating balance, which are on the 66th page (3-10) of Budget Paper No. 1, to the Budget aggregates table, which is on the 11th page (1-5).
The Treasurer revealed exactly how he would change the accounting treatment to split recurrent and capital expenditure in the Budget. He admitted himself today:
“This will be done by reporting the net operating balance alongside the underlying cash balance.”
(Scott Morrison, speech, 27 April 2017)
SloMo has been in hiding for 17 days working on the Budget and this is the best he has to show for it.
He’s moved at a rate of three pages a day to move a single line.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Of course we are open to new ways to better invest in infrastructure given the Turnbull Government has slashed infrastructure spending.
We have considered our own changes to how debt is displayed in the Budget through our recent Better Budgeting discussion paper and will look at these changes in detail – but given all the problems with this shambolic Budget, this should be far from Scott Morrison’s top priority.
