Today, NSW Labor has announced that they will be bringing to Parliament a bill to enable Pauline Hanson's One Nation party to access the Parliamentary Budget Office for costings ahead of the March NSW election. Under the current Parliamentary Budget Officer Act, the Coalition as Opposition has access to the Office for all election policy costings, while minor parties and independent members are able to have two election policies costed only. Labor is now seeking to give the same access to One Nation as the Coalition currently has.
One Nation has no elected representatives in the NSW parliament, following its previous three Upper House MPs leaving the party to sit as independents following the last State election. The Greens are the third largest party in the Parliament after the Liberal-National Coalition with seven MPs.
The Greens are warning Labor not to legitimise One Nation and their divisive policies by granting them parliamentary privileges.
As stated by Abigail Boyd, Greens NSW Treasury Spokesperson:
"It should come as no surprise that One Nation's preferred Premier, Chris Minns, is seeking to provide additional resources and access to the NSW Treasury officials to One Nation party operatives.
"By playing politics with access to institutional knowledge and resources, Labor are willing a One Nation presence in the next NSW Parliament party into existence.
"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. 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.
"While Labor is busy trying to bring One Nation into their private members club, the Greens are surging around the country. Is it any wonder Labor are desperately trying to pretend we don't exist?"
"At the end of the day, you don't need a PHD in economics or the Parliamentary Budget Office to tell you that racist immigration policies and half baked culture war ideas won't solve the real issues facing the people in NSW, nor do you need the PBO to tell you that the people of NSW are not getting a fair deal from the protection racket Labor is running for the gambling lobby, property developers, fossil fuel giants, commercial landlords, big tech and data centre developers.
"People in this state are doing it tough. This is just another distraction from a tired Labor government out of touch and out of ideas."
