Andrew Robb the Shadow Finance Minister, today announced that the coalition would not release a further set of policy documents to Treasury for costing until it was known who leaked a policy costing document to the Fairfax newspapers earlier this week.
You can listen to the interview with Andrew Robb:
I smell a rat.
The Coalition probably have every right to be upset that this damning assessment of their spending promises was released to the newspapers but they still haven’t explained the real issue - Why are their costings not backed up by Treasury. Why is the an $800 Million+ hole in their estimate of one policy. They aren’t claiming that this document is false, they just demand that the leaker should be found and arrested. On this basis they are confirming that there is a hole in their assessments.
And now the clincher. They aren’t going to release any more costing documents to Treasury until the leaker is found. What spin. They are now terrified that the rest of their policy costings are grossly underestimated that they do not want Treasury to review them. This si the easy out. They know that the leaker will not be found. At least not in the next ten days. They can try to walk the high moral ground while at the same time withholding from the Australian people vital information with which they can use to assess the truthfulness of their promises. The Coalition (and all other parties for that matter) should be forced to release the costing documents to Treasury for analysis when they release the policy. This would ensure that we have more than just a politicians word that the figures are right. That would be a true ‘Charter of Budget Honesty’
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