Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes; 'Hear, hear'. He sided with you to bring in the carbon tax, which has had such deleterious effect on Australians all over the country.

This is an extremely important debate, because the call for updated information in the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook will not affect the cost of most policies and therefore the release of this document should not delay the release on policy, and that is where we differ. The Parliamentary Budget Office at the Senate estimates hearing on 11 February this year confirmed that they are unable to accurately finalise the costing of election policies until after the release of the PEFO, published by the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Finance. It will be the PEFO, which is the final set of budget numbers, by which the coalition will measure and cost our policies ahead of this year's federal election. But let me tell you that after 14 September, if we are lucky enough to be elected by the Australian people, we will be accountable, our policies will be costed and we will get a budget surplus.

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