Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. One of the amendments before us this evening is the coalition's suggestion that the Parliamentary Budget Office should have the power to carry out its own forecasts. Again, you can easily see why they would want an amendment like this. They went to the last election with an $11 billion hole in their costings. They are currently $70 billion behind in their economic policy. When you are in a situation like that, you play catch-up football. You want a set of forecasts that might, perhaps, just give you the numbers you want.

Hearing those opposite speak in the debate tonight reminds me of a mate of mine who had a pretty old car, about 15 years old, with a lot of rust underneath. We were in New South Wales, so the car had to be assessed every year. Every year he would go around to mechanic after mechanic and say to all of them, 'Do you reckon you would pass this for rego,' and they would say, 'No, I don't think we'd pass it.' So he would move on to the next one and the next one and the next one, until eventually he found a mechanic who would say that his car was roadworthy. That is what those opposite want. They want a few more chances to show that their election policies are roadworthy—a few more attempts to find someone, anyone, who will say that the coalition costings add up.

As the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer has highlighted this evening, at the last election the coalition put up policies that were $11 billion behind. They took these policies to a firm of accountants who are now being investigated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants. The coalition are now $70 billion behind in their budget policy. They are throwing punches left, right and centre and this evening they are throwing punches at Treasury. They are saying that Treasury has become politicised.

The opposition are saying that, if we do not support their amendments to allow a new set of forecasts out there, they will not submit their policies for costing by the Parliamentary Budget Office or Finance or Treasury. The opposition are saying that, if we do not have a Parliamentary Budget Office that maintains secrecy—that allows them to keep their costings secret from the Australian people—they will not comply with the Charter of Budget Honesty. We are two years out from the poll and the coalition are already saying that the Charter of Budget Honesty is just another piece of paper to be torn up.

The Australian people deserve better than this. They deserve a debate over policies, not two sets of economic forecasts. The Australian people deserve transparency. They deserve a Parliamentary Budget Office that requires policies to be placed in the public domain, not hidden behind closed doors. They deserve an opposition that does not attack Treasury just because it fails to agree with them on a particular point. (Time expired)

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