The unprecedented announcement today that the Coalition will not base its election costings on Treasury and Finance's independent Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal (PEFO) outlook will leave Australians in the dark about how the Opposition intends to pay for any of its policies.
The Shadow Treasurer said today that the Coalition would go back on an earlier pledge to base their costings on the PEFO and would not accept the PEFO figures as valid:
"If PEFO looms the same as the economic statement, then PEFO won't be worth the paper it's written on." Joe Hockey, Australian Financial Review, 26 July 2013.
Yet this is what he was saying only a few months ago:
"We have always said that the only numbers we can actually rely on are the numbers released by the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury and Finance, ten days into the election campaign. Because they belong to the public servants rather than these numbers which belong to the Government." Joe Hockey, ABC NewsRadio, 15 May 2013
As part of the Charter of Budget Honesty, the Departments of Treasury and Finance must provide an independent update so the public can see the state of the budget before casting their vote.
The Government of the day has no influence or input into this update.
The Australian people have the right to wonder how Mr Hockey proposes to run the nation's finances if he refuses to accept Treasury projections. It also begs the question, how does the Coalition plan to cost their policies in the forthcoming election?
During the 2010 election campaign, the Coalition was rightly ridiculed for an $11 billion blackhole in their costings – for which their two hired accounting firms were extraordinarily fined $5000 each for breaching professional standards.
Coming a day after the Shadow Finance Minister questioned the value of a AAA credit rating and likened Australia's financial position to that of Lehman Brothers, these latest comments show once again that the Coalition lacks economic credibility.
This Government will be upfront with the Australian people and clearly detail our policy costings. We will be transparent about our policies, on the state of the budget and the global economy.
The Australian people have the right to know how the Coalition will account for their policies – Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey need to come clean before the election about what cuts they plan on making to deal with their more than $70 billion black hole.
Instead, the Coalition is planning a Commission of Cuts, an audit of government expenditure that is trying to avoid announcing further cuts until after the election.
26 July 2013