Billion-dollar figure that damns the Labor Government The story of this Budget should begin and end with this figure: a $19.4 billion deficit that came from nowhere, writes Andrew Bolt. WE MISSED the most obvious thing about the Budget. The single figure that exposed the Gillard Government as incompetent, deceitful or both. It is this: $19.4 billion. That figure - the size of the deficit - is not even mentioned in Treasurer Wayne Swan's Budget speech, yet damns this Government most. How could it have "lost" so much money so fast? One year ago, Swan promised he'd finally deliver a surplus this financial year. Only six months ago Prime Minister Julia Gillard was still promising it. The Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook had just warned her the Government would get less revenue than it had greedily estimated, but Gillard rejigged things and said she'd still be $1 billion in the black. Yet now we have a $19.4 billion deficit instead. In six months, the Government ended up $20 billion behind what it expected and promised. That is more than the full cost of the Government's proposed disability scheme and its Gonski changes combined. How could you make such a bungle over so short a period, especially with no great change in the world or domestic economy? Here's another curious fact about that figure. Three weeks ago Gillard said she was receiving $12 billion less in tax revenue than she'd expected after those MYEFO figures. "The amount of tax revenue the Government has collected so far this financial year is already $7.5 billion less than was forecast last October," she said. Treasury now estimates this reduction will increase to around $12 billion by the end of the financial year. So three weeks ago Gillard told us she was down $12 billion on what she'd expected in October, just before she again promised a surplus. How did another $7.4 billion go walkies in only three weeks? The story of this Budget - and the Government's financial credibility - should begin and end with this figure: a $19.4 billion deficit that came from nowhere.