Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

There are so many responses to the word 'travesty' I could make to Senator Macdonald but I will resist. The government opposes this amendment. I would ask Senator Cormann to recognise that in moving it he is actually moving a position different from that which was signed up to by his colleagues in the joint committee report on the Parliamentary Budget Office. There is a lengthy discussion in chapter 3. If you look at the concluding comments, which commence on page 45, I would make this point. This is what was signed up to by Senator Joyce and Mr Pyne in March this year. It is amazing what a difference a few months make. It says:

In fulfilling this mandate, it is further proposed that the key functions of the PBO are to prepare responses to the requests of individual Senators, Members and ... committees ...

There is then a further discussion exactly on the point that Senator Cormann raises with this amendment. It says:

Given the resource intensive nature of the work and the need to minimise the duplication of work produced elsewhere, the PBO should not be required to produce its own fiscal forecasts. Rather, it should provide analysis of the Government’s fiscal forecasts, commenting on the assumptions, judgements and overall reliability of Government assessments.

Senator Cormann ought to explain to this chamber why it is that in March 2011 senior shadow ministers, including the leader of the National Party in this chamber, agreed—