THE OPPOSITION'S Treasury spokesman, Joe Hockey, has released the Coalition's election policy costings just two days before voters go to the polls.
The Coalition maintains the costings documents (view them here) prove there will be:
- No cuts to education, health, defence or medical research;
- No change to the GST;
- No “$10 billion fraud” (as alleged by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd);
- No $70 billion black hole in the Coalition costings (as long alleged by Labor);
But the Coalition does plan to delay some foreign aid spending to help fund infrastructure projects.
The documents have been scrutinized by an independent panel (read its letter here), which includes former secretary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Peter Shergold, former Queensland Auditor General Ken Scanlan and economist Geoff Carmody.
Labor has criticized the Coalition for releasing the costings so late in the election campaign, and not having all their policies scrutinised by the Parliamentary Budget Office.