TERRY MCCRANN

were desperate to project.

This is one of fiscal responsibility and in particular bringing the Budget back into measured and believable surplus.

Now, they were already pushing the envelope – and the English language – by boasting that the Budget “IS” back in the black.

Well, actually, no: it is projected that it will be back in the black in the new financial year beginning on July 1 and after the election.

To repeat, this financial year – which is not yet over and so we don’t really know what the final bottom line will be – is forecast to still be in deficit to the tune of $4.2 billion.

As I noted this was pretty much a replay of former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan’s much – and appropriately – derided “four surpluses” that he announced in 2012.

Indeed, you could say that Swan was actually somewhat more honest: he didn’t claim that the Budget was in the black; but that he was announcing “four years of surpluses”. That “honesty” was in truth, though, very, very limited.

Swan was claiming that the Budget would leap – and I mean leap – back into just the tiniest, statistically irrelevant, not even a rounding error, surplus of just $1.5 billion (in a