Part 4 Election policy costings

Division 1 Requests for election policy costings

18   Request for election policy costings by parliamentary leaders

(1)  A parliamentary leader may, in accordance with this Part, request the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare costings of publicly announced or proposed policies.

(2)  An election costing request may only be made in relation to policies that are announced or proposed for implementation after the next State general election.

(3)  A parliamentary leader may only make an election costing request in relation to a policy publicly announced or proposed by that leader.

(4)  An election costing request may relate to proposed changes in expenditure or revenue.

(5)  An election costing request must:

(a)  be in writing, and

(b)  outline fully each policy to be costed, giving all relevant details for the purpose of costing the policy, and

(c)  state the purpose or intention of the policy.

(6)  For the purposes of this section, a policy is taken to be announced or proposed by a parliamentary leader if it is announced or proposed by a member of Parliament on behalf of the leader or of the party concerned.

19   Period during which election policy costings may be requested

(1)  An election costing request may be made at any time during the period before a State general election is due to be held, being the period commencing on the day on which the last State budget before the election is presented to Parliament (the pre-election period).

(2)  For the purposes of the State general election due to be held on 26 March 2011, the pre-election period commences on 25 January 2011.

20   Withdrawal of election costing requests

(1)  A parliamentary leader may, by notice in writing given to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, withdraw any election costing request that he or she has made.

(2)  An election costing request may be withdrawn at any time before the election policy costing is provided to the parliamentary leader who made the request.

Division 2 Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare costings of election policies

21   Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare costings of election policies

(1)  As soon as possible after receiving an election costing request, the Parliamentary Budget Officer is to:

(a)  prepare a costing of the policy concerned, and

(b)  provide the costing to the parliamentary leader who made the request.

(2)  The Parliamentary Budget Officer is to inform a parliamentary leader who makes an election costing request of any costing that the Officer is unable to provide and of the reason that the costing cannot be provided.

(3)  If the Parliamentary Budget Officer needs more information for the purpose of costing a policy, the Officer may ask the parliamentary leader who made the election costing request to provide that information in writing.

(4)  A parliamentary leader is required to notify the Parliamentary Budget Officer of the public announcement by that leader of policies that have been costed by the Officer.

22   Public release of election policy costings

(1)  A parliamentary leader may publicly release an election policy costing provided to that leader by the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

(2)  The Parliamentary Budget Officer is required to publicly release an election costing request and the election policy costing when the parliamentary leader who requested the costing notifies the Officer that the policy has been publicly announced.

(3)  If the Parliamentary Budget Officer considers that an election policy costing provided by the Officer has been publicly misrepresented, the Officer may issue a public statement to correct the misrepresentation.

23   Budget impact statements for all costed policies

(1)  The Parliamentary Budget Officer is to prepare, during the pre-election period, a separate budget impact statement for the respective policies of each parliamentary leader that have been costed under this Part.

(2)  A budget impact statement is to list the relevant costed policies and show:

(a)  a summary of the assessed financial impact of each costed policy, and

(b)  the total net financial impact of all the costed policies,

      on the current year’s State budget and on the forward estimates for the period to which the pre-election half-yearly budget review relates. The budget impact statement is also to show the impact of all the costed policies on the State’s net financial liabilities.

(3)  The Parliamentary Budget Officer is to provide, on the day that is the fifteenth last day before the State general election is due to be held, a draft budget impact statement to each parliamentary leader in relation to his or her respective policies.

Note. For the purposes of the State general election due to be held on 26 March 2011, the draft statements are to be provided on 11 March 2011.

(4)  A parliamentary leader may, within 48 hours after being provided with a draft budget impact statement, notify the Parliamentary Budget Officer in writing of his or her final list of costed policies for inclusion in the budget impact statement.

(5)  The Parliamentary Budget Officer is to:

(a)  revise the draft budget impact statements in accordance with any such notification, and

(b)  publicly release all the final budget impact statements on the day that is the fifth last day before the State general election is due to be held.

Note. For the purposes of the State general election due to be held on 26 March 2011, the final statements are to be released on 21 March 2011.

(6)  When the Parliamentary Budget Officer releases a budget impact statement, the Officer is also required to publicly release election costing requests and the election policy costings for all policies listed in the budget impact statement.

Division 3 General election costing provisions

24   Pre-election statement of uncommitted State funds

The Secretary of the Treasury is to publicly release, at the same time as the public release of the pre-election half-yearly budget review, a statement of the amount of uncommitted funds that are available (within the revised estimates of recurrent and capital expenditures) to meet any future expenditure commitments for the General Government Sector for the period to which the review relates.

25   Parliamentary Budget Officer guidelines

The Parliamentary Budget Officer may issue guidelines for the purposes of the making of election costing requests and the preparation of election policy costings and budget impact statements under this Part.

26   Revision of election policy costings and budget impact statements to correct any errors

The Parliamentary Budget Officer may revise an election policy costing or budget impact statement under this Part at any time after it is made to correct any error, and provide or release the revised costing or statement.

27   Nominee may act for parliamentary leader

Any function of a parliamentary leader under this Part may be exercised on his or her behalf by a nominee of the leader, being a person nominated by the leader from time to time by notice in writing to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.