Part 6: Reporting — public release of policy costings

As noted in Part 1, the Charter requires that costings be publicly released as soon as practicable after a costing request has been made. Costing requests made before polling day are to be released prior to polling day and, where the Caretaker Period extends past polling day, requests made after this day are to be released before the end of the Caretaker Period.

Reasons for non-release of policy costings

Where a policy costing is not possible, the Secretaries will issue a press release, no later than the close of business on the last business day before polling day, stating reasons why the policy cannot be costed.

Where the Caretaker Period extends past polling day, and where costing requests made after polling day cannot be completed, a similar press release will be issued as soon as practicable after the end of the Caretaker Period.

The non-release of a policy costing may be due to:

• time constraints that prevent the policy being costed before polling day or the end of a Caretaker Period;
• the withdrawal of the request for a costing by the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition or a Leader of a minority party;
• insufficient information about the policy to allow the Secretaries to cost it properly; or
• insufficient data available to cost the policy reliably.

Published policy costing report: contents and protocols

When a policy costing is published, the final report will include the request submitted under Clause 29(2) of the Charter; any request for further information made by the Secretaries; and any further information forwarded to the Secretaries or obtained in discussions with parties.

The report will also include the following:

• an outline of the specific costing methodology and assumptions used (including any economic and behavioural assumptions) in sufficient detail to allow an understanding as to how the costing was determined;
• a table setting out the annual Budget cost against the current financial year and the following three financial years (where assumptions are particularly uncertain, the Secretaries may choose to report costings as a range of likely outcomes);
• an explanation detailing any significant differences between the assumptions specified in a party costing request and those used in a Treasury/Finance costing; and
• where the Secretaries consider it appropriate, a sensitivity analysis which shows the extent to which changes in assumptions could produce different costing estimates.

Appendix D outlines the pro-forma that will be used by the Secretaries when releasing a policy costing.

Informing parties of the public release of a costing and the delivery of costing reports

The offices of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party will be advised at least four business hours in advance of the expected public release time of all costings, but not of the content of the reports. The requesting party will also be informed of the hand delivery arrangements and public release approximately one hour prior to the release.

When a costing is to be released, hard copy costing reports will be provided to the Parliament House offices of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of a minority party at approximately the same time, with the costing provided to the requesting party first. Shortly after the delivery of the document, costings will be publicly released to the press and on the joint Treasury/Finance election costings website. As noted in Part 4, the Secretaries will aim to produce a written report that provides a full explanation of the costing. However, a further statement may be issued if the Secretaries judge that further clarification of a costing and the methods used is required.

Next: Appendix A: Costing of measures and updating estimates
Previous: Part 5: Requests for costings and processing
Return to: Home