Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor will support the Parliamentary Service Amendment (Post-election Report) Bill 2018, which implements one of the recommendations of the independent review into the Parliamentary Budget Office. It will give more time for the Parliamentary Budget Office to release their post-election report on election commitments. That post-election report lists the commitments made by major parties during an election campaign that will have a material impact on the Commonwealth budget. Currently, it must be published within 30 days after the end of the caretaker period for the general election. These amendments change that, giving the Parliamentary Budget Office more time, so that the report will need to be published by either 30 days after the caretaker period or seven days prior to the first sitting day of either or both houses of the parliament, whichever date is later.

This change takes into account other recommendations of the independent review which noted that the report can take longer to compile if it includes things such as medium-term financial impacts. It has been Labor that has led the way on medium-term costings, recognising that for many policies it's important to understand the implications not just over the four years but also over the decade. This is particularly true with grandfathered reforms, such as Labor's changes to capital gains and negative gearing, where the impact over the 10 years is materially different from the impact over four years. It's important, too, when we're thinking about long-term policies and the issues typically raised in the Intergenerational report, that we aren't simply confined to thinking about fiscal costs over a four-year window.

The Parliamentary Budget Office has accepted the other recommendations of the independent review and is undertaking a process to implement them. The independent review was finalised in 2017. Labor welcomed the Parliamentary Budget Office's acceptance of all of the recommendations put forward by Ian Watt and Barry Anderson. It recognised that the Parliamentary Budget Office has been a successful institutional development in Australian governance, filling a significant gap in our public policy landscape. It produces rigorous, independent and non-partisan analysis that ensures that we are debating the substance of policies rather than how much they will cost.

I remember that so many of the elections in my childhood were focused on costings. The costings battles between costings that had been prepared for the opposition by independent accounting firms were brought into scrutiny, with the government saying that policies would cost different amounts from those private firms. It meant that the political debate was distracted from the substance of the reform and moved on to the narrow technocratic question of how much it will cost.

The Parliamentary Budget Office is an equal status coster to the Treasury, a point sometimes missed by those opposite. Labor established it. We are proud of the institution it's become. It's helped the parliament and the public develop a deeper understanding of the budgetary impacts on policies being considered. Its independence and focus on transparency have improved the information and data available to the public. The Parliamentary Budget Office also produces regular reports on important fiscal issues, which shine a light onto key questions around budget sustainability and ensure that the public has a strong idea of who is bearing the heavy lifting for fiscal changes.

But for all the important work the Parliamentary Budget Office does, it can't stop the wasteful spending of those opposite. And nothing but an election will put an end to the budget mismanagement that has occurred under the aptly named ATM government. The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government has been treating the Commonwealth budget like its own personal ATM, racking up debt that is now, in net terms, $360 billion. That's double what they inherited when they came to office. That means that a majority of Australia's net debt today was accrued by the ATM government. The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government is responsible for more than half of Australia's debt.

When they speak about Labor's debt they are speaking about a minority of Australia's debt, debt accrued in order to stare down the global financial crisis, the greatest downturn to strike the world since the Great Depression and in which Australia—unusually, among advanced countries—managed to put in place a timely, targeted and temporary fiscal stimulus to see us not incur recession. That ensured that hundreds of thousands of jobs were saved, that tens of thousands of small businesses were saved.

What's the excuse for the coalition? Gross debt has crashed through half a trillion dollars now for the first time in the nation's history. It's a record $542 billion and rising. We can put this in personal terms. Net debt for Australians is now $360 billion. That's around $14,000 for every man, woman and child in Australia. Most of that was accrued by the coalition. Last year alone the Liberals blew $200 million on political ads to distract from their cuts and chaos and the division and dysfunction that has characterised the government.

Australians want their taxes to fund better schools. They want their taxes to fund reduced elective and emergency surgery wait times—

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fenner is straying from the subject matter of the bill. I'd ask him to direct his attention to the bill.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate your guidance, Deputy Speaker Andrews. The Parliamentary Budget Office's integrity will show, at the next election, the total cost of policies put forward by both sides—including political advertising—including Labor's reforms to ensure that we no longer spend $100 million on cash refunds for excess franking credits. The Parliamentary Budget Office has costed our policies, and the Parliamentary Budget Office's figures ensure that Labor will go to the next election offering more generous personal income tax cuts for anyone earning under $125,000, we will pay down debt faster than the coalition over four years and over 10, and we will invest more in schools and hospitals. These are policies costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office in the independent and authoritative way that they are able to do.

We'll support the bill. We established the Parliamentary Budget Office. We're proud of the institution it has become, and we believe it is appropriate that it have a little more time post the election to prepare that report and to consider, in particular, the medium-term financial impacts of policies prepared by the major parties. I commend the bill to the House.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I'd like to thank those members who have contributed to the debate on the Parliamentary Service Amendment (Post-Election Report) Bill. The bill will help to ensure that the time frame for the Parliamentary Budget Office to prepare the post-election report of election commitments allows additional time and additional scope to increase the way in which the report is able to include medium-term financial impacts of election commitments and include the policies of parties with less than five members, where that party has asked to be included. Additional time is also expected to enhance the visibility of the post-election report by moving the timing closer to the resumption of parliamentary sittings. Expanding the scope of the post-election report will increase transparency around the budget impacts of the election commitments that have been made by political parties. It is important the post-election report is accessible, informative and available in time to inform deliberations of the parliament.

I particularly want to acknowledge, and thank for their work, the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and especially the finance minister in ensuring that this change is brought forward. It builds upon the work that they have done in order to secure the nation's finances. Of course, we inherited a large fiscal black hole in 1996, and we repaired that. That, coupled with the financial services regulation, enabled Australia to pass through the GFC. It was not expenditure on pink batts and school halls which did that; it was the fiscal situation of the nation which allowed us to ensure that we avoided the worst of the international excesses and the worst of the international downturn.

At the same time, when we came into office in 2013, there was a deep structural deficit which had been built. Almost all attempts to pass legislation through the parliament which would deal with that structural deficit were blocked by those on the other side. Despite that, we have been able to bring the budget back to surplus, and I think that that is an abiding achievement. I want to honour, thank and congratulate the finance minister, the Treasurer and the Prime Minister for their work in that event. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.