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

We do believe that transparency around policy costings is important, and that is why last week the Deputy Prime Minister announced the government's intention to enhance the Parliamentary Budget Office's capacity to ensure budget transparency from all sides of politics with additional resourcing of the Parliamentary Budget Office to support this role. This will enhance the office's capacity for costings to be prepared in the lead-up to the election and remove the excuse which we have previously heard from those opposite for policies to be released as thought balloons rather than to be properly costed. We will also introduce legislation that would require the PBO to prepare a post-election audit of all parties' commitments. This is an accountability safeguard, a transparency safeguard, which we know the Australian people need because of the form of those opposite who hid an $11 billion black hole through the last election only to be found out. (Time expired)