An economist has accused the Coalition of “treating voters with contempt” with the timing of their costings.
The Coalition says the full costings of their policies will be released on November 27just one day before the election.
Both the opposition and One Nation have refused to commit to hard dollar figures for much of their election campaigns, saying they will not know the financial picture until they are able to look at the government’s books.
But economist Saul Eslake rubbished the claims, saying that was not the case in Victoria.
“It is not really sensible for … [a party] not currently in government to say, we can’t
tell you what we’re going to do because we don’t know the state of the books,” Eslake said.“It was
true in Queensland in October ‘24 when Crisafulli came to office there because Queensland
doesn’t have a requirement for a pre-election financial update, but Victoria does.”
He urged whichever party won power to avoid promising big-ticket items like tax cuts until the budget was back in the black.
“[A new government should] avoid commitments to cut state taxes until the government has
returned to a cash surplus and can afford to start giving money away, which at the moment it
can’t do,” he said.
Eslake made the comments on Thursday at a forum titled ‘Victoria’s Debt Crisis: Where is the Plan to Fix it?’, hosted by independent candidates Sophie Torney and Shima Ibuki.
Torney is running against Liberal leader Jess Wilson in Kew and attacked the opposition leader over her economic strategy.
“Jess Wilson is claiming she is honest with Victorians. So why is she waiting to release her
costings only one day before the election, when over 60 per cent of voters have already cast their
ballot?” Torney said.
Wilson has previously refuted criticism of Coalition costings, stating that the opposition had announced more than $24 billion worth of savings.
“Only my team has a credible plan to actually see this budget repaired, to ensure we start paying down the debt in this state,” she said last month.
“Labor have announced no significant savings. Other policies and other parties have no costings attached to them.”
Source: www.abc.net.au
