Former Labor Leader Mark Latham says the federal government has “failed hopelessly” on their promise to bring the budget to surplus.

He tells Ben Fordham “you would’ve thought five years into a Coalition government they would’ve fulfilled their promise of bringing the budget back into surplus”.

His comments come after leaks from tonight’s budget forecast “huge infrastructure spending”.

“Look at this budget already, they’ve leaked out huge infrastructure spending just to try and keep up with the immigration rate as our cities sprawl out endlessly.

“You can’t have it both ways.”

The Outsider says the government should’ve adopted a more disciplined spending policy.

“They’ve been adding to debt year by year.

“If five years ago they adopted a fiscal discipline on no new spending programs, the budget now would be in healthy surplus and we’d be paying down debt.”

Listen to the full interview below