Both the Coalition and Labor have in the past argued that paying off Commonwealth debt is a benchmark of economic success in Australian politics.

But Treasurer Josh Frydenberg recently warned Australians that his July budget update was going to contain "eye watering numbers around debt and deficit", saying: "The coronavirus has required the Government to spend unprecedented amounts of money to support people in need".

The following day, in an interview with ABC News Breakfast, shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Government must not be allowed to "pull a swiftie" by pretending the red ink in the budget was a consequence of the virus when the vast majority of the debt had piled up beforehand. "Something like two-thirds of the debt in the budget was borrowed by the Government before this outbreak of COVID-19," Mr Chalmers said.

What do the records show? 

When the Coalition came to power in September 2013, gross debt stood at about $280.3 billion. That level of debt was largely the consequence of borrowing undertaken by the former Labor government to help cushion Australia from the global financial crisis, which according to the Reserve Bank began around mid-2007. By the end of January 2020, as Australia began to record its first cases of coronavirus, gross debt was $568.1 billion. On July 22, 2020, the day before Mr Chalmers made his claim, gross debt stood at $723.4 billion.

The increase in gross debt since the pandemic hit Australia — $155.3 billion — represents 35 per cent of the $443.1 billion of debt borrowed by the Coalition since it came to office.

This is consistent with Mr Chalmers's claim that something like two-thirds of the debt was borrowed by the Government before the outbreak of COVID-19.

For completeness, Fact Check also examined net debt figures, which factor in offsetting financial assets.

The verdict: Mr Chalmers is correct.