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It may just have been the universe having a laugh but as I was reading the Liberal election platform, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” fired up on my random playlist.

It was a timely reminder that the fiscal projections the Liberals swear you can take to the bank are likely to prove as reliable as a builder’s estimate.

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After all, the 2015 platform suggested by this time the budget would be in surplus, after three years of “modest” deficits and the debt to GDP level would be 27 per cent.

In the event, deficits have been four times the Liberal forecast, surplus is a distant speck on the horizon and debt as a function of the economy is considerably higher.

As one Liberal staff member told me, that “sprawling” platform was put together by a third-place party that had been out of power for a decade and was throwing things at the wall. When he asked how they would fulfill all the hundreds of promises, he was told, “We’ll only have to if we get elected.”