BLOG: Costings become a guessing game

Labor’s “Gotcha” moment seemed to have backfired badly with Treasury and Finance Secretaries, together with the head of the Parliamentary Budget Office, distancing their units from claims about a $10 billion black hole. Labor’s advice from these Departments was provided with regard to policies outlined prior to the period of caretaker Government. Rather than point to a specific mistake related to earlier policy calculations, Labor could have just kept hammering the point about costings in general. Nonetheless, as Crikey correspondent Bernard Keane observed: ‘‘I’m of the view that the costings imbroglio doesn’t matter a jot: voters are aware that the Coalition has dodgy form on costings, and they’re prepared to back it anyway.