By Katie Cassidy
Photo: Kevin Rudd, Chris Bowen and Penny Wong yesterday took aim at the Coalition's latest plans for budget cuts. (ABC News)
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The Government has defended its use of Treasury and Finance advice to claim the Coalition has a $10 billion hole in its budget savings after the two departments weighed into the debate to clarify their positions.
The Prime Minister yesterday revealed assessments from Treasury and the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), prepared before the election was called, that he said showed the Opposition's plans would only save the budget $21 billion.
But in an unusual move, senior public servants have sought to correct the record and as a result, also taken some of the sting out of the Government's attack.
The Treasury and Finance departments said they had not costed the Opposition's policies but policy options as provided by Labor before the September 7 ballot was called.
It pointed out that different assumptions, such as the start date of a policy, can generate different results.
A joint statement read: "At no stage prior to the caretaker period has either department costed Opposition policies.
"Different costings assumptions, such as the start date of a policy, take up assumptions, indexation and the coverage that applies, will inevitably generate different financial outcomes."
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The PBO went further, saying it is "inappropriate" to claim costings were done of another party's policies.
The Coalition says it is an extraordinary move and a direct attack on the credibility of the Prime Minister.
Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey says voters cannot trust the Government.
"Yesterday, outraged at the behaviour of the Government, I sent the disputed PBO details to the Treasury to prove that what the Government was presenting was wrong," he told Channel 7 this morning.
But Treasurer Chris Bowen has stood by the Government's actions.
He said the submission was based on what the Opposition had said publicly and if the assumptions are wrong, the Coalition should release the full details of its policies.
"What the Treasury and Department of Finance and the Parliamentary Budget Office have said, it all depends on the assumptions that are made and we've made exactly the same point," he said.
"We say the Opposition should release their full costings, all the assumptions, all the inputs, all the working papers because there's very clearly a $10 billion black hole here."
Speaking to the ABC's AM program, Mr Hockey said the Coalition would release all its costings next week.
"When our policies are released in full, our costings will be released in full," he said.
"We've had a methodical process to dealing with this that has enormous integrity and when Kevin Rudd failed to blow a hole in our costings, he simply blew a hole in his own credibility, or whatever is left of it."
