Originally published in ABC The Drum on May 11, 2009

Right up until the end of the resources boom and the onset of the global financial and economic crisis, the government was flush with money, a result of the virtually continual ‘surprises’ as economic growth, and especially government revenue, came in way over budget forecasts in each of the years from 2003-04 to 2007-08. By the time of the first Swan Budget in 2008, the cumulative impact of the tax surprises in the five budgets during these years was running at $83.4 billion per annum.

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