Just as Labor refuses to accept any responsibility for the fiscal handicap the country now faces, the [Abbott] Government resolutely refuses to concede that its performance on debt and deficit is no better.

Take this exchange between the Prime Minister and Michael Brissenden on AM.

PM: Under the former government, expenditure grew at 3.6 per cent real every year. Under this Government, it's growing at 1.5 per cent real.

Brissenden: ...the 3 per cent figure is a 10 year MYEFO figure that includes the NDIS. Your 1.5 per cent that you're quoting is a four-year figure that doesn't include the NDIS.

PM: The 3.6 per cent real is what Labor spent over its time in office...

Brissenden: Yeah, but it's a 10-year forecast.

PM: And the 1.5 per cent real is what we're spending over the forward estimates.

Brissenden: It's apples and oranges though.

PM: I don't accept that, Michael.

End of story then.

Leigh Sales on 7.30 came up against the same resistance when she interviewed the Treasurer, Joe Hockey.

Sales: The Government's spending as a percentage of GDP is 25.9 per cent. That is the same as the previous Labor Government (was) spending at the height of the global financial crisis.

Hockey: Not true. They got to 26 per cent.

Sales: You're at 25.9 per cent!

Semantics.

Remember, Joe Hockey IS NOT AN ECONOMIST...