Jim Chalmers on the cost of chaos

Just before we get off the budget, I mean, the MAIFO in December... showed what looked to be a structural deficit.

You know, it's like it's a deficit for 10 years and finally goes back into balance according to the Treasury forecast in 10 years' time.

So do you accept that it's a structural deficit and what responsibility do you have, do you think, to remove it more quickly than 10 years?

Well, first of all, I think it's possible to acknowledge the structural pressures on the budget, the structural position of the budget.

And that there's much, much more work to do to make the budget more sustainable.

It's possible to acknowledge that and also recognise that we've come a long way in the last few years.

I mean, we've actually seen the biggest nominal improvement in the budget in the history of the country.

in the last few years, $233 billion stronger.

Debt is down $176 billion.

We found $114 billion worth of savings.

I could give you a whole bunch of different ways that shows that the budget is in substantially better nick than in the 2022 pre-election outlook.

Yeah, but there's still a big deficit.

And I'm acknowledging that there's more work to do.

I mean, you referenced the mid-year update in December.

Yeah.

And that had another $20 billion in savings.

The underlying cash position in every year improved.

And so even in that mid-year update, which was a relatively self-contained one, relatively modest one, given a lot of the action was in the budget in March last year, even in that mid-year update, we improved the budget position.

And so we're chipping away.

I think we are making good progress.

We can acknowledge that progress at the same time as we acknowledge we've got more work to do.

I think the size of the deficit is roughly the same as the cost of the NDIS.

How much of a problem is the NDIS? How badly designed do you think it was in the beginning?

Well, I don't like second-guessing the decisions taken a while ago when it comes to the NDIS.

Our highest priority, obviously, is providing a decent level of care for people who need and deserve it, and that's the highest priority, but we've got to make it more sustainable.