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The final budget outcome for the 2012-13 financial year was a deficit of 18.8 billion AU dollars ( 17.5 billion U.S. dollars), Australian federal government data released on Friday shows.
"The challenge for the next three years is to rebuild the public's trust in the government's finances through prudent management of taxpayers' money and careful and responsible governance," Treasurer Joe Hocky said in a statement.
In the 2012-13 Budget, the previous Labor government had promised a surplus of 1.5 billion (1.4 billion U.S. dollars) but ended up delivering a deficit of 18.8 billion, Hockey said.
The number was in fact unchanged from that announced by former Labor treasurer Chris Bowen in August, and reflected a modest improvement on the 19.4 billion (18.1 billion U.S. dollars) deficit forecast in May.
Bowen's predecessor, Labor treasurer Wayne Swan, had repeatedly promised to return to a surplus in 2012/13 before tuning it down in December last year at government revenue drop.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the final budget outcome confirmed the "deteriorating state of the budget."
Hockey said the government was "methodically" going through every line of the budget to identify whether the forecasts were robust or not.
Hockey also said he would not follow Labor's pattern in constantly releasing updated figures only to see them "continually change."
"If we release a set of numbers we want to make sure they are absolutely right," he said.
The government will outline its plan to return the budget to surplus "in the next few months."
One of the first pieces of legislation the coalition will have to deal with in the new parliament will be a bill to raise the national debt ceiling beyond 300 billion AU dollars (280 billion U. S. dollars).
