And so we’ve come to the “fruitless argument about election costings” portion of the State election campaign.
That’s the bit where the Government, which has had access to all the analytic horsepower of the 100,000-strong public service for the past four years, baits the Opposition into submitting its election plans, many of which have been developed (by necessity) on the political equivalent of the back of an envelope, for costing by Treasury.
In 2013, Labor was successfully forced by Troy Buswell and the media into submitting its Metronet plan to Treasury for costing. When Labor’s sums didn’t add up, Buswell and the Liberals went for the jugular, declaring Mark McGowan couldn’t be trusted on financial matters.
In 2005, it was then opposition leader Colin Barnett under pressure on the question of costings, as this exchange with ABC Stateline presenter Rebecca Carmody demonstrates. READ MORE…