One Nation will refuse to submit its policies to financial scrutiny before the 2027 election, rejecting Labor’s bid to pressure the populist party into having its promises costed by the state’s independent budget office.
The government will this week move legislation to allow the independent NSW Parliamentary Budget Office to run the ruler over the resurgent party’s election policies.
The move is an attempt by the government to force the party to submit to the same scrutiny as the two major parties, after numerous polls have shown One Nation leading the opposition Coalition on primary vote. Mike Newman, One Nation’s leader in NSW, has repeatedly said the party is aiming to form government after 2027.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey laid down the gauntlet for the party, saying the state “can’t afford to live in budget fantasy lands”, as Labor seeks to ramp up pressure on the right-wing party before the vote. He was joined by shadow treasurer Scott Farlow, who said One Nation should “put your money where your mouth is”.
Despite former Liberal senator turned One Nation aspirant Hollie Hughes previously complaining about a lack of access to costings, the party has rejected the move, with Newman saying the party would not use the Parliamentary Budget Office to cost its policies.
Instead, he said the party would seek to cost the government’s renewable energy policies.
“Our only request will be what is the total cost of net zero to the NSW budget? Unless the PBO can provide a comprehensive response then One Nation will not be lectured,” he said.
That is unlikely to be possible. Under PBO legislation, party leaders can only request costings for a policy announced by them or a party member ahead of an election.
Barnaby Joyce, the Nationals defector and federal MP for New England, said the party had its own “chartered accountants” who worked on economic policy. “We do actually have people, I’m not going to go through [who] on our economics policy that are working for us, like chartered accountants. I have them, and we go through the processes of working out costings,” he said.
Labor’s move is the latest example of the Minns government’s growing desire to push One Nation into the limelight before the election. Labor believes state leader Newman, a former investment banker and trade commissioner, compares unfavourably with its totemic leader Pauline Hanson. It is also the potential beneficiary of a split right-wing vote between the Coalition and One Nation in NSW’s optional preferential voting system.
While welcomed by the opposition, the decision to hand One Nation access to the PBO was criticised by the Greens, which, as a minor party with seven MPs, can only cost two of its policies. Greens treasury spokeswoman Abigail Boyd claimed the move would help “legitimise” One Nation.
“It’s plain to see what game Labor are playing. Causing One Nation policies to be costed will show them to be half-baked, destructive and guaranteed to backfire on the people of NSW – we all already know this to be true,” she said.
“But Labor are asking the voters to compare them to One Nation, rather than compare them to a party like the Greens, whose suite of policies they know to be popular and beneficial to the people of NSW and against which they’d come short.”
Premier Chris Minns said the decision was a reflection of the reality of the party’s polling numbers.
“They’ve definitely got polling and community support legitimacy. There’s no point pretending otherwise,” he said.
Labor came under fire before the previous election for claiming its decision to remove the public sector wage cap would not cost the budget because of associated savings. The PBO, in its pre-election costings, questioned those assumptions.
Farlow on Tuesday said if One Nation wanted to form government it should “put forward policies that are sustainable and can be costed”.
He pointed to One Nation’s promise to cut payroll tax to zero in regional NSW and by half in Sydney, which Labor says would wipe billions from the state’s economy.
While the Coalition has also promised to reduce payroll tax by lifting the threshold from $1.2 million to $1.5 million and cutting the rate from 5.45 per cent to 4.75 per cent for businesses with a payroll spend below $10 million, Farlow said, “you’ve also got to balance the books”.
“It’s easy to come forward and to say we’re going to do X, Y, and Z, but you’ve got to balance the books at the end of the day,” he said.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.