Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, I did take it as a cheer squad anyway. What we have here is an amendment proposing real power to the Parliamentary Budget Office. It is very interesting that the government members are objecting to this. It could be that they think they will never lose power. I can understand that perhaps some of the longer-serving members on the government side are not looking beyond the next term or two, but it surprises me that members like the member for Chifley and the member for Throsby are not looking a little more forward into the future. Maybe they think they know it all. Maybe they think they do not need assistance from the officers or from a future Parliamentary Budget Office to assist them with costings going forward. But, if we are going to have transparent and democratic government, this is what we need: we need a Parliamentary Budget Officer who has the authority to access information and to provide that information without fear or favour to both the government and the opposition, because it is critical that we cost the promises.

I look at the member for Chifley, who is here in the chamber; he served with me on the inquiry into the National Broadband Network. Just think: if we had had proper costing of that proposal going into the election, maybe the government would have made some wise decisions and saved the Australian people several billion dollars. Maybe if we had had proper costings on pink batts we would not have wasted money as we have. If we had—

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