Zed Seselja is turning the costings table by looking at the treasury costings of Labor adopting the Green policy platform:
“During the election, Labor promised hundreds of millions of dollars in spending. That was added to by the list of projects in the agreement signed with Shane Rattenbury. We have used the costings undertaken by Treasury, and taken out doubled up costs such as Light Rail to get a fair and complete picture of the costs. Combined, the promises total a staggering $2 billion.
“That’s about half the entire budget of the ACT, or about the equivalent of the entire health and education budgets combined.
“It’s an amazing amount to pay and Canberrans have a right to know just what the price of power was in this process.
“Worse still, the $2 billion price tag comes before paying off any of the debt or deficits, themselves hundreds of millions of dollars.
UPDATE 09/11/12 16:43: Andrew Barr is not impressed by Zed’s figuring:
Zed Seselja’s analysis on the cost of ACT Labor’s election commitments looks like it was written on the back of a drink coaster – after a few too many beers.
It beggars belief that a party that forgot to include CIT in its education policy, couldn’t figure out whether their health plan was over four years or five, and failed to submit their $7 billion health and $3.6 billion education policies for independent scrutiny, would try to take the moral high ground on costings.
First, the budget impact from the election commitments made by Labor and from the parliamentary agreement is $68 million in 2013-14.
Second, in the 2012-13 Budget there is a provision for capital works of about $190 million – against which the election commitments of ACT Labor (and other parties) was allocated.
Third, light rail will be funded in partnership with the private sector. The cost won’t be met upfront from the ACT Budget, and will be spread over the life of the project. In addition, the Government will receive offsetting revenue – such as from redevelopments along Northbourne Avenue – which will help fund the project.
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