When are people going to see Malcolm Turnbull for what he is – a big bag of wind. He knows the government has to spend as much as we do.

Matthew, I think the Rudd Government should continue to assess things on a month-by-month basis in relation to the state of the budget and indeed the global situation. I am not convinced we are there yet, but depending on how things develop, I agree with the government that spending measures that take the budget into deficit may well be justified.

There seem to be two reasons to have a surplus. When the economy is humming along, not injecting money into the economy and adding to inflation makes sense (although apparently there’s no clear-cut link between running a deficit and inflation). Second, the government doesn’t have to pay interest on its bonds and so saves money if it can pay for things out of a balaced budget (though governments should be paying tiny amounts of interest at the moment as investors flood into safe goverment bonds).

The third reason seems to have something to do with Liberal ideology/Protestant frugality and self-denial – that is, the sense that a balanced budget means a good government running a tight ship whereas a deficit means sloppiness and permissiveness.

Why don’t business people and commentators – who are all over the media saying running a deficity is absolutely the right thing to do – put aside their Tory prejudices for once and say the Libs are talking utter nonsense. After all isn’t capitalism supposed to be on the precipiece?