Election 2022: Labor accused of ‘ducking and weaving’ costings on election policies

Labor has been accused of trying to avoid “proper accountability” on the costings of its election commitments, as the Coalition is ahead.

Exclusive: Labor has been accused of trying to “duck and weave” from “proper accountability” on the costings of its election commitments, with the Coalition way ahead on submitting its own policies for financial scrutiny.

It can exclusively be revealed the first tranche of requests to confirm Coalition policy costings were lodged with the Department of Finance on Friday, while Labor is yet to begin the same process.

As the Morrison campaign seeks to exploit Labor’s perceived weakness on costings after failing to explain its urgent care clinic policy, the Albanese team has hit back claiming they are taking the “same approach” as previous oppositions.

The policies the Coalition has already submitted to the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) include $273.1m in Type 1 Diabetes, $107.5m on Cairns water security, $106.6m for forestry training and a $2m contribution to the Melbourne Royal Children’s’ Hospital’s Good Friday Appeal.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said Labor claimed they were transparent with their costings, but this did not “match their actions”.

Anthony Albanese in front of 100 undecided voters, the first debate of the federal election. Picture: Jason Edwards

“The handful of policies Labor have released have fallen apart under scrutiny within hours of their release and now they are doing everything they can to dodge scrutiny of the costs of these policies,” he said.

“Labor’s approach is just another ploy to duck and weave from proper accountability.”

In the first week of the election campaign, Labor’s finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher was forced to clarify a false claim in relation to the opposition’s flagship health policy to establish a trial of 50 urgent care clinics around Australia.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese had said the policy was “fully costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office,” but in a late night tweet Ms Gallagher confirmed the commitment was merely “informed by” the department and was yet to be submitted for scrutiny.

A Labor campaign spokesman said the party was “taking the same approach that every opposition has taken” since the PBO was established.

“(We) will release our costings in the usual way at the usual time,” he said.

“We will not be lectured by the Morrison Government, which is addicted to secrecy.”

Mr Birmingham said the government would be using the PBO system to “verify and publish” all the Coalitions budget costings on an ongoing basis up to the May 21 poll.

“We are doing so in a timely way and will continue to throughout the campaign,” he said.

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Originally published as Election 2022: Labor accused of ‘ducking and weaving’ costings on election policies