Election 2022: Anthony Albanese grilled about Labor’s costings

Anthony Albanese has faced a tough grilling from reporters about one issue so close to the election.

Anthony Albanese has been grilled about when Labor will outline its final costings, less than a week out from polling day.

Speaking at a press conference in Western Australia on Monday, Mr Albanese insisted a Labor government would be fiscally responsible.

But was pressed on when his party would release its costings prepared by the Parliamentary Budget Office.

“Mr Albanese, you’ve been saying all election that you’ll be a safe pair of hands for the economy, that Labor will be fiscally responsible … There’s now less than a week until the election. When will Labor outline its costings?”

“One of the things that we have done this entire election campaign is with each policy, we announce what the costings are,” he said, referring to Labor’s calculations on what things would cost.

“The idea that we don’t have costings out there is, quite frankly, absurd.”

But Labor has still not released its formal costings from the PBO.

“We will put out all of the opposition’s costings in the usual way at the usual time frame as oppositions have,” Mr Albanese said.

“Can you answer the question that has been asked?” a reporter pressed.

“We will put out all of our costings as oppositions have in the usual way at the usual time frame,” Mr Albanese repeated.

Shadow finance minister Katy Gallagher last week told ABC Radio it was “very normal” to wait until the final week to release the final costings.

It is expected this will occur on either Wednesday or Thursday.

“This is very normal. The government released their costings, I think two days before the last election in the last two elections. So this is very normal, and it’s another scare campaign from the government,” she said at the time.

Anthony Albanese was grilled about the deficit under Labor. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The opposition leader was on Monday asked about whether Labor’s investments to boost productivity would lead to higher deficits over the next four years.

“Those investments will lead to higher productivity,” Mr Albanese began.

But he was pushed to answer the question.

“The question is higher deficits over the forward estimates,” the journalist cut in.

“If you want an answer, you’ve got to stop talking. That’s the deal,” Mr Albanese shot back.

“Everything we are investing in, everything we are investing in is about boosting productivity,” he continued.

“And in terms of the fiscal position, the other thing that I have said repeatedly, but I’ll repeat it again – we will have Treasury and Finance go through an audit line by line to get rid of the waste and the rorts that this government have had.”