Yesterday I made a conservative estimate of Tony Abbott’s budget black hole at just shy of $40 billion over three years, driven largely by the Libs’ aggressive tax cut agenda. Today we are told that we’ll get some costings to fill the hole, or not:
It is understood Mr Abbott will release as soon as Wednesday the details of his controversial paid parental leave scheme. It was costed at the last election at about $4.5 billion a year and would be mostly funded by a 1.5 percentage point increase in company tax for companies with a taxable income of $5 million or more. As the Financial Review revealed earlier this year, the policy cost will be trimmed this time by excluding local, state and federal government employees already eligible for taxpayer-funded paid parental leave.
With the election not due until September 7, other Coalition policies are not ready to be released or are still being costed. In an unprecedented move to buy time, the Coalition plans to also reveal this week a statement outlining its costing methodology.
A senior source said it would contain such detail as where the financial information was being sourced, who was undertaking the costings and who was signing off on each costing.
“It is the most comprehensive costing process ever by an opposition,” said the source.
The PPL is largely irrelevant to the black hole, representing $1.5 billion or so over the three years. Presumably it is the focus of so much attention because it’s the one policy that the rentier class is desperate to overturn (not without cause!).
But it’s not what the nation needs to hear from Mr Abbott. His exhaustive costings process, that isn’t ready after six years in opposition, needs to describe how he intends to fill his $40 billion black hole, or whether he doesn’t intend to at all and is proceeding with a moderately sized stimulus plan.
