Gillard caught out on costings deception

19/08/10

Julia Gillard’s economic credibility is in tatters.

At the Broncos Leagues Club last night the Prime Minister told the audience that Labor had made $3.8 billion in election promises during the campaign.

This was either a deliberate misrepresentation or a major blunder.

The truth is that Labor has made promises totalling at least $6.8 billion over the forward estimates during the campaign, as revealed by the attached list of Labor’s campaign spending promises. (Note: the attached list includes all Labor’s campaign promises including those which go beyond the forward estimates)

The Coalition has released this list of Labor promises because Labor refuses to do so.

Unlike the Coalition, Labor has also refused to release full details of its costings and financial position.

Labor has also refused to match the Coalition by having their costings independently verified by a third party accounting firm.

Labor’s periodic campaign press releases on their alleged fiscal position contain just three lines of purported costings information.

This is a new low in accountability, even for the Labor Party.

Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard must think they are being clever by failing to come clean and release the full details and costings of all of their promises. They must think that their failure to disclose full details will enable them to continue to deceive and mislead the public.

This was their approach at the last election, and they have adopted the same tactics in this election.

It’s time for Labor to match the Coalition and release a full and detailed list of all their campaign expenditure and savings promises – independently verified by a third party.