Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Now we find they will say anything and do anything to run away from proper scrutiny the next time around as well. They are looking for any excuse to trash the Parliamentary Budget Office before it even gets off the ground. We had the member for Mackellar come into this House last night and mount a despicable attack on prominent public servants, and that was added to by the member for Goldstein. All of this comes after those opposite had sat on a joint select committee and supported in full the proposals for the Parliamentary Budget Office. Two shadow ministers supported it. The member for Higgins supported it, and she had this to say about the PBO back then: 'It will enhance transparency and accountability.' What has changed in the past five months? What has changed in the past five months is that there is a $70 billion crater in their budget estimates, before they add any new policies for the next election. The shadow Treasurer is so scarred by his incompetence that now he wants to hide from scrutiny during the next election campaign. There are 70 billion reasons why the shadow Treasurer wants to keep his costings hidden from the Australian public—70 billion reasons why this mob cannot be trusted to run an economy and are unfit for public office.

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