Anthony Albanese has created a $7 billion hole in Labor's Budget after overturning, via text message to a journalist, a budgeted reduction in Australia's refugee and humanitarian intake from 20,000 to 13,750 places a year.
New Parliamentary Budget Office analysis obtained by the Coalition confirms Labor's May Budget was already built on the refugee and humanitarian intake falling to 13,750.
But on 27 August, the Prime Minister intervened via text message to an ABC journalist to commit the Government to maintaining the intake at 20,000 into future years.
An existing PBO costing shows the fiscal difference between an annual intake of 20,000 and 13,750 is more than $7 billion over the medium term.
That leaves the Government needing to find around $7 billion to pay for the Prime Minister's commitment.
Yet when asked twice in Question Time today whether the Treasurer or Cabinet approved the decision and where the money would come from, the Prime Minister refused to answer, instead handing both questions to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.
Leader of the Opposition Angus Taylor said the Prime Minister had serious questions to answer about how the commitment would be funded.
"Anthony Albanese has managed to turn an off-handed text message to a journalist into a $7 billion Budget black hole. That is not serious economic management," Mr Taylor said.
"This was not a minor change. The Prime Minister reversed a Budget position, hung his own Immigration Minister out to dry and left taxpayers with the bill.
"Today we gave the Prime Minister two opportunities to explain whether the Treasurer or Cabinet approved his $7 billion decision and where the money is coming from.
"Twice he refused to answer.
"Australians are being told to tighten their belts while the Prime Minister makes multibillion-dollar spending decisions by text message. You could not make it up.
"The Budget was clearly built on the humanitarian intake falling back to 13,750. The Prime Minister changed course under political pressure, but the money still has to come from somewhere.
"At a time when families are being smashed by the cost of living, every extra dollar matters. Labor cannot keep making expensive spending decisions first and worrying about who pays for them later."
The new PBO analysis examined the fiscal impact of setting the refugee and humanitarian intake at 13,750 places a year.
It found there would be no impact on the fiscal or underlying cash balance across the Budget forward estimates because the proposal involved "no change to the Australian Humanitarian Program intake level".
The finding confirms the 13,750 intake was already baked into Labor's Budget.
On 27 August, Mr Burke's office said the temporary increase to 20,000 places had been funded for four years and the intake would return to 13,750.
Hours later, following a backlash from refugee advocates and Labor MPs, the Prime Minister texted an ABC journalist saying the 20,000-place intake "remains government policy and will be continued in future years".
The Prime Minister has still not explained whether the Treasurer or Cabinet approved the change before he made that commitment, or where the Government will find the billions of dollars needed to pay for it.
