Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has let the cat out of the bag this afternoon by announcing via press release the Opposition will not come clean on its costings for at least 183 days.
Australians should be very concerned that the party whose 2010 election auditors were exposed for professional misconduct is continuing to hide the truth.
This is a deeply deceptive ruse from the Coalition to hide the impact of their policy proposals from the Australian people.
The idea that the Coalition can refuse to release what any of their policies cost until deep into the campaign is unprecedented.
There is nothing stopping the Coalition releasing today the policies they boasted to have already been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office.
In light of the $70 billion shortfall announced by the Shadow Treasurer in 2011, it is even more essential that their cuts be made public.
Let's be very clear:
- Nothing in PEFO will change the cost to working people from the Coalition's scrapping of the tax free threshold.
- Nothing in PEFO will change the damage of ripping out tax cuts and pension increases.
- Nothing in PEFO will change the impact of culling superannuation support to Australia's lowest paid workers.
Never forget, this is the same Coalition team who refused to comply with the Peter Costello's Charter of Budget Honesty at the last election.
After that election, under duress those costings were eventually released to Treasury and were shown to have an $11 billion hole in them.
It is long overdue that the Coalition were up front with the Australian people about what their policies will mean for the Budget.