One Nation promises a real-time budget tracker, yet refuses to reveal the cost of its own policies
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Victorian leader Warren Pickering says his party will roll out an online spending tracker, even as it withholds independent costings for its election promises and dismisses the Parliamentary Budget Office.
One Nation announced it will develop an online, real-time expenditure tracker to increase transparency if it wins power in Victoria. But the party’s state leader, Warren Pickering, attacked the accuracy of the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) and said the party would not publish costings for its policies until it carries out its own audit of government finances, a stance that only adds to concerns about secrecy.
Pickering told reporters, "We know there’s some great people at the PBO, but the reality is, when has one of their cost projections been accurate in the last decade?" He added that the party would "blow the books open" before adopting any external costing system. The PBO, established in 2018, provides independent fiscal analysis and policy costings for Victorian parties. Parliamentary Budget Officer Xavier Rimmer responded, "While there are alternatives to the PBO’s election costing service, only the PBO’s service combines expertise and independence, with comparability across parties." One Nation’s refusal to release costings has drawn scrutiny after a PBO review, commissioned by the Liberal Party, found the party’s estimate for family-support measures to be $553 million lower than the independent figure. Deputy leader Colleen Harkin initially claimed the plan would cost $136 million over four years, but the PBO’s assessment placed the cost at $688.7 million, with the sports voucher component alone projected at $471.3 million.
Labor Minister Anthony Carbines said the lack of published costings suggests the party is not ready to govern responsibly, stating, "People who can’t put forward any costings at all for their policy positions aren’t people we take very seriously." The debate over policy costings comes as debt concerns feature prominently in the upcoming Victorian election, making One Nation’s refusal to be transparent all the more politically telling.