Find below the Joe Hockey’s claimed $31 billion in savings. It’ll take time for me to go through this and figure it out. It’s a set of accrual savings not cash savings so it’s not an apples versus apples comparison with PEFO or the Economic Statement (which may be seen as a fiddle).
Here’s the list:
There is also the issue of double counting. Some of the savings that offset tax cuts in this document have been allocated to other spending cuts previously. There is also the issue of the Coalition’s huge claimed savings for public service jobs when guys like Saul Eslake reckon the reality is about 20% of the $5 billion claimed.
There do appear to be some new savings but it’s nothing like what will be required to fill the $30-35 billion black hole. Until we get the cash accounting figures, as well as what’s offsetting what, it’s impossible to reach a bottom line.
For a Party campaigning on the strength of its grasp of budgeting this is a weak document.
Coalition_costings.pdf by Lauren Frazier
