Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher have released a joint statement on the coalition’s plan for two new future funds:

The Coalition’s announcement of two off-budget funds will mean bigger deficits, more debt
and more rorts under Dutton.
This is a recipe for bigger deficits and more gross debt, not less.
These new funds will mean that future revenue won’t be used to directly improve the
bottom line or pay down debt.
Instead, taxpayers money will be parked in new funds that we know will be rorted.
As Angus Taylor and Peter Dutton have said, “the best indicator of future performance is
past performance”.
When they were last in Government, Peter Dutton and the Liberals racked up bigger
deficits and more debt and today’s announcement is more proof they will do it again.
The Coalition had a shameful record of treating public funds as political slush funds, and
this is exactly what they would do again.
Nothing the Liberals say about the budget means anything until they come clean on what
they’ll cut to pay for their $600b nuclear reactors.
The Liberals need to explain how much they will push up gross debt, what this will cost
Australians and whether this means even harsher cuts.
Our Government has brought debt down, restrained real spending growth and unlike our
predecessors banked the vast majority of revenue upgrades.
Since coming to Government, around 70 per cent of tax upgrades have been returned to
the budget, compared to only around 40 per cent under the previous government and the
Howard Government who returned only around 30 per cent.
We’ve lowered the Liberal debt by $177 billion this year, saving $60 billion in interest costs
in the process.
The choice at the election is between Labor’s plans to help with the cost of living,
strengthen the economy and budget, and build Australia’s future, or more debt, waste and
rorts under the Liberals.