Federal election 2016: ALP fury over Coalition attack on ‘black hole’

The Coalition has stumbled in its attack on Bill Shorten over the cost of his promises, wrongly quoting Labor’s foreign aid budget.

Bill Shorten urged voters to back his plan to spend an extra $12.2bn on Medicare and $37.4bn on schools.

The Coalition has stumbled in its attack that claims Bill Shorten has a budget black hole of up to $67 billion while Labor is insisting the government is misrepresenting opposition policies.

The government wrongly claimed Labor would spend $19.3 billion on foreign aid in the next four years, when Labor had released a policy statement at the weekend in which it promised only $800 million on top of the government’s planned foreign aid spend.

The dispute undercut Malcolm Turnbull’s attempt to focus the campaign on the cost of Labor’s ambitious plans for health and education, exposing the government to accusations of misleading voters on the true cost of policies.

The Prime Minister described the Labor leader as “billion-dollar Bill” and again mocked the Labor “spend-o-meter” to highlight the cost of Labor promises.

Mr Shorten labelled him “desperate” for attempting the attack, which he dismissed as a “great big fat lie” from the Prime Minister over the cost of Labor promises.

Scott Morrison and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann sought to intensify pressure on Mr Shorten yesterday by issuing their own estimate of the Labor costings, claiming a $66.9bn “black hole” over the next four years.

The claim centred on the estimated $30.4bn cost of Labor promises so far, $34.6bn for spending Labor wants to restore and $1.9bn for the net effect of Labor savings measures set against the cost of savings Labor has blocked in the Senate.

However, the costings included $19.3bn for foreign aid that does not match the Labor policy ­detailed at the weekend.

Asked about a “black hole in your black hole” yesterday, Mr Morrison acknowledged there was a range of options in the possible Labor costings. “The worst-case scenario is $67 billion; best-case scenario is a $32bn black hole,” the Treasurer said. ­“Either way, Australians will pay more for what Labor is claiming at this election. They’ll pay it more in higher taxes than what Labor will admit to. They’ll pay more in terms of higher deficits and higher debt.”

Labor finance spokesman Tony Burke returned fire at the government over budget repair, declaring the opposition would post a better budget bottom line than the Coalition by July 2.

Both sides of politics are ­expected to reconcile the cost of their policy commitments before the election on July 2, though the government revealed many of its policies in the May 3 budget.

Labor deputy leader and foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said the Coalition claim flew in the face of Labor’s policy.

“This is an extraordinary suggestion given that our announcement ... was that we would spend an extra $224 million,” she said. “It would be really great if this government spent a bit of time getting their own policies right rather than critiquing Labor’s.”

The dispute overshadowed questions about the $18.2bn cost of budget savings blocked in the Senate. While Labor has proposed tax increases worth about $14bn and savings of $2.3bn over four years, this does not offset blocked budget savings and pay for new promises.

Mr Shorten urged voters to back his plan to spend an extra $12.2bn on Medicare and $37.4bn on schools in the next decade rather than accept Mr Turnbull’s plan for a $48.2bn company tax cut.