Auditor-General costing of election promises will stop a spend-a-thon says business

12 May 2010

NSW’s largest business organisation, NSW Business Chamber, has welcomed the introduction of legislation into the NSW Parliament that will allow for independent costing of election promises.

“This legislation is welcome by business as a way of ensuring that the commitments made by both parties are costed and funded”, said Stephen Cartwright, CEO of NSW Business Chamber.

“This is an important step forward for NSW and I congratulate Premier Keneally for agreeing to the request for the legislation by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr O’Farrell.

“It simply makes the election policy process more robust and ensures we see less policy on the run.

“The last thing NSW needs in coming months is a spend-a-thon which puts at risk the AAA rating.

“The Auditor-General is independent of government and respected by all.  This process will ensure we don’t see a repeat of previous elections where there were claims and counter-claims about promises.

Mr Cartwright said he hoped the Audit process would include the Auditor General making comment on the robustness of costing assumptions. 

“We can’t have a situation where a costing is made which is unsupported.  In other words, if for example, a party makes a $250,000 commitment to build a police station, we need to know the $250,000 figure is realistic and not plucked out of the air.

Mr Cartwright said the legislation would improve the transparency of election commitments and ensure that the parties only made commitments that were affordable.

“Clearly if a political party is making excessive promises then this process allows the fiscal credibility of that party to become a proper election issue.”