‘The height of hypocrisy’: Labor, Libs row over costing of election promises

WA Labor and the Liberals have locked horns over the cost of their respective election promises, with Treasurer Rita Saffioti’s criticism of the Liberals’ refusal to subject its pledges to Treasury scrutiny met with accusations of hypocrisy.

The deputy premier convened a press conference on Wednesday to call on both the Liberal and National Party to “come clean” about who would be poring over their election costings and questioning the distrust of the Treasury agency.

WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti at the press conference on Wednesday.Credit: Jesinta Burton.

She claimed the commitments of the two parties to date totalled almost $7 billion — more than 10 times those of Labor.

Saffioti declared WA Labor would be lodging its commitments with the department and updating the budget impact weekly, calling on the opposition to “level the playing field” by doing the same.

“They’ve gone on a pre-Christmas spending spree, and we’re asking for them to account for it: it’s time that the Liberals and Nationals come clean with the WA public and tell us what commitments they stand by and who will be costing their election commitments,” she said.

Liberal spokesperson Steve Martin later confirmed an expert had been engaged to scrutinise its election commitments but declined to be drawn on their identity, stating only that the assessment would be “independent”.

Martin disputed the multibillion-dollar figure Saffioti placed on the Liberal Party’s commitments, claiming it did not account for savings it intended to find within Labor’s budget.

But he was not forthcoming about what those cuts would be, reiterating the party’s intention to reveal its full costings and budget process closer to the March 8 election.

Martin also came out swinging over criticisms of the party’s decision not to submit its costings to Treasury, pointing out Labor had taken the same stance while in opposition and branding its critique “the height of hypocrisy”.

Former premier and treasurer Mark McGowan refused to hand over the party’s election costings to treasury ahead of the 2017 election.

At the time, McGowan claimed the independent department had been politicised and that meetings had been infiltrated by Liberal operatives.

Saffioti staunchly defended her predecessor’s position, pointing out that its flagship Metronet policy was subject to treasury scrutiny in 2013 and that it enlisted the help of two former high-ranking public sector officials to review costings in 2017.

But the deputy premier stopped short of committing to implementing the independent Parliamentary Budget Office Labor foreshadowed almost eight years ago, which was also backed by an inquiry the following year.

Martin said the Liberals supported an independent budget office, as it had in 2017, and accused Labor of changing tack once it came to power.

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