Labor must back independent election costings
The Labor Party must abandon its current sham “independent” policy costings and back a truly independent Parliamentary Budget Office if it is to have any credibility on costings, Shadow Minister for Finance Robert Clark said today.
“Victorians can have no confidence in Labor using the same costing processes that have already seen the cost of myki blow out by $850 million, smart meters by $1.45 billion and the desalination plant by $2.6 billion,” Mr Clark said.
“There’s nothing independent about Labor getting public servants to write Labor policies, cost Labor policies and then certify Labor policies.
“Treasury in Victoria is part of a public service that Labor has increasingly politicised and brought under the government’s thumb and it’s nonsense to claim they are truly independent and able to treat all parties equally.
“John Brumby has yet to explain why he is trying to introduce in Victoria an election policy costing system that has failed and is being replaced in Canberra.
“In Canberra, all parties have agreed to scrap treasury costing of election policies, and instead set up an independent Parliamentary Budget Office.
“That is what a Coalition government will do, and that is what John Brumby should commit to do.
“A Coalition Government will establish a Parliamentary Budget Office within Parliament, overseen by the Auditor-General.
“We will transfer to the Parliamentary Budget Office the taxpayer-funded resources Labor is using exclusively to develop and cost its own election policies, and make those resources available for all parties and MPs.
“For this election, if Labor is genuine in wanting policies to be independently costed, Labor should agree with the Coalition and other parties on an interim process that will ensure genuinely independent costings, rather than Labor’s current sham process.
“If Labor refuses to agree to a genuinely independent costing process to be available for all parties, the Coalition will continue to have its policies for this election reviewed by an independent accounting firm, just as Labor did in 2002 and 2006,” Mr Clark said.