Western Australia Liberals reveal their election costings ahead of Saturday’s vote

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The West Australian Liberals have revealed their costings just days out from the state election. They had refused to disclose who would conduct the financial assessment of their election commitments but have now revealed it was done by former Federal and state public servant Peter Conran.

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00:00Less than 48 hours before the polls open here in Western Australia, the Liberals have revealed

00:06their costings.

00:07They've announced more than $4 billion worth of election promises, mainly coming from cost

00:12of living, housing and health.

00:15But they've also revealed more than $600 million worth of savings from programs relating to

00:20trains, buses, other forms of public transport and labour advertising and consultants.

00:27That reduces the net impact on the debt to about $3.4 billion.

00:32The Liberal costings were conducted by former top public servant Peter Conron, who used

00:36to run former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard's office and was also a top adviser

00:41to former WA Liberal Premier Colin Barnett.

00:44However, the Liberals also defended his independence, saying that he had 30 years of experience

00:49at the highest level of the public service and that his independence was not in question

00:55at all.

00:56The Liberals have also promised not to cut the public service, saying that in fact they

00:59want to boost police officer numbers and increase the number of doctors and nurses in public

01:04hospitals.

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