MEDIA RELEASE: Two years after election Liberal Party costings “defective”

On the two year anniversary of the election of the Abbott Government, its 2013 campaign costings overseen by Joe Hockey have been condemned as flawed.

The Coalition’s 2010 election policy costings were also found to have breached professional standards by a tribunal set up by the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Tony Abbott said in 2013, "If debt is the problem then more debt is surely not the answer.”

TONY ABBOTT – MEDIA RELEASE – 18 FEBRUARY 2013

But from the very beginning, Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey have been unable to manage the books and manage the economy.

Since coming to Government, debt and deficit have gone up. Between the Government’s first Budget and its second, the deficit doubled.

These revelations only confirm the Coalition’s absolute failure when it comes to fiscal management.

Reports today reveal one of the three experts who “independently verified” the Coalition’s campaign costings has been found guilty by CPA Australia of breaching auditing standards.

Len Scanlan has been penalised by CPA Australia for failing to uphold professional standards in the work he did for Joe Hockey in 2013 following a complaint from an economist and an emeritus accounting professor.

One of the complainants, Professor Bob Walker said it was “hard to think of a more blatant ethical breach than the publication of a defective report on government finances just days before a national election.”
According to the report, Mr Scanlan was the only member of the Coalition’s “independent review panel” that belongs to a professional accounting association and so is the only one subject to sanctions.

SEPTEMBER 07, 2015