Same old Labor rejects independent election policy costings

Minister for Finance Robert Clark said today that the Labor Party has proven once again they cannot be trusted with money, after voting in Parliament to defeat the establishment of an independent Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) to cost election policies.

“Daniel Andrews has once again shown why Labor can’t be trusted with money,” Mr Clark said.

“Labor have defeated this Bill because they know that independent scrutiny of their policies would expose their dodgy costings.

“If any further proof were needed of the dangers to the community of re-electing a Labor government – this is it.

“Labor’s two policies to date on selling the Port of Melbourne and overnight public transport have already been shown to have massive black holes, meaning a re-elected Labor government would see massive increases in public transport fares and would put Victoria’s AAA credit rating under threat.

“Labor know that they cannot afford to have their election policy costings exposed to independent scrutiny, and that is why they have defeated this Bill.

“This was a policy that the Coalition announced in opposition during the 2010 election campaign, to replace Labor’s shonky costing scheme that required all opposition and minor party policies to be submitted via the then Premier’s office to be costed by departmental officers answerable to the executive of the day.

“Rather than admitting they are frightened of scrutiny, Labor have sought to turn the PBO into a massive extension of the funding that taxpayers already provide to fund a secretariat for the Opposition.

“The Shadow Treasurer gave the game away when he admitted in Parliament that the Opposition’s amendments were designed to ensure that their version of a budget office would include providing tactical advice to the Opposition.

“Victorian taxpayers should not be forced to divert funds from services to the community, in order to give Daniel Andrews even more money to help him do his homework. If Labor cannot develop policy ideas of their own, they cannot claim to be fit to govern Victoria.

“Labor also needs to explain whether it supports the integrity of other independent officers of the Parliament including the Auditor-General, after suggesting that the Parliamentary Budget Officer would not be truly independent despite being appointed in an identical manner to the Auditor-General.”

In addition to appointment on the nomination of the bi-partisan Public Accounts and Estimates Committee of the Parliament, the Government’s legislation included a range of measures to guarantee the integrity of the PBO, including a mandated review of the PBO’s operations by the Auditor-General, the protection of the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s salary through a separate special appropriation and autonomy for the Parliamentary Budget Officer to recruit his or her own staff.

The Coalition Government’s election commitment was for an independent body to verify the costings of parties’ and independent members’ election policies in the lead up to an election. That is exactly what the Government’s legislation provided, including a three month period, within which policies could be costed.

Having PBO policy costing available from the beginning of September in an election year will provide ample time for parties to have their policies costed and announced in the lead-up to the election in late November, given that in 2010 Labor didn’t submit their first policy for costing until 5 November.

“Daniel Andrews and the Labor Party have shown once again that they are the same old Labor who have learnt nothing from their bungles and blowouts in government and still can’t be trusted with money,” Mr Clark said.