" ..The budget forecast projects that the federal debt will shrink slightly as a percentage of GDP, from 31.5 per cent this year to 30.9 per cent in 2021-22..."

So we - the electorate - are being promised a 0.6% shrinkage of our debt over a span of 5 years, or 0.1% per annum. All this accomplishes is the semantics of being able to claim a decrease in our debt - good politics but quite meaningless numbers which are too small to measure and prove.

Yet voters continue to pretend this is a democratic accomplishment - and both the Libs and Conservatives indulge in such leger-de-main, and we continue to pretend that we have a democratic choice.

I will pay attention when a party promises on a stack of Bibles to do absolutely nothing except to reduce our deficit and debt, and actually does it.