David Seymour: ACT Leader on the state of the Government's books revealed in Treasury's Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Sep 29, 2026 · 2m · transcript

ACT Party leader David Seymour says while the PREFU numbers are “hopeful”, they rely on there being further significant reduction in Government spending by the end of the decade.

Asked how reliable the forecast was, Seymour told Ryan Bridge the 2023 PREFU had promised a $2 billion surplus by the current financial year, with debt at $193 billion, and in reality it was now at $209 billion.

“So what this document has told us is that the surplus will be two years later than we were promised last election, and debt will be $16 billion higher than we were promised last election,” he said…