[Greens-Media] PARNELL: Greens Call For SA Parliamentary Budget Office

[Taylor, Sam]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, 13th March 2014
Greens Call For SA Parliamentary Budget Office

As the SA Liberals today release their election costings, the Greens today called on both Labor and Liberal to commit to installing a Parliamentary Budget Office, similar to the arrangement in Canberra, so that independent costings can be released much earlier and more transparently.

"The low level of debate in politics these days is appalling," said Greens Leader Mark Parnell MLC. "Many 'announcements' and 'policies' are made without any information being publicly available in order to scrutinise the impact to the budget. We need a Parliamentary Budget Office so that detailed and accurate costings can be released in real-time as policies are announced.

"Currently, the system favours the Government, because they have the Departments and the Treasury to cost out projects. Other Parties, however, are forced to pay consultants to do that work, and even then they don't have all the information available.

"Not being able to accurately cost policies in the context of the budget means that the public cannot rely on what Parties say about their costings.

"The Greens instigated a Parliamentary Budget Office at a Federal level, and it has proven to be very effective. It allows independent costings and realistic assessments of Government, Opposition and other Parties' announcements.

"When Parliament resumes, the Greens will push for a range of reforms that will increase transparency and boost the amount of information available to voters, including instigating a Parliamentary Budget Office for South Australia," concluded Mr Parnell.

For further information contact Mark Parnell: 0439 215 937






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