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OfficialsexposeLabor’sfiguresBy STEVE LEWIS

LABOR’S economic credi-bility has been torpedoed af-ter two of Australia’s mostsenior public servantsundermined claims of a$10 billion black hole in TonyAbbott’s election costings.

In a highly unusual move,the heads of Treasury andFinance issued a statementto distance themselves fromclaims the Coalition had amajor financial hole in theirelection costings.

The intervention was wel-comed by the Opposition,which has been under pres-sure to provide full details ofits election costings.

Treasury head Martin Par-kinson and Finance chiefDavid Tune, in a joint state-ment, forced the Govern-ment on the defensive justhours after Prime MinisterKevin Rudd had publicly ac-cused the Coalition of a$10 billion ‘‘fraud’’.

Mr Rudd had launched afierce attack on the Coalit-ion’s economic credibility inwhat appeared a last-ditch at-tempt to turn around Labor’sfaltering campaign.

Desperate to turn aroundpublic support, the PM andhis senior ministers releaseda number of policy costingswhich they claimed exposeda $10 billion ‘‘error’’ in theCoalition’s savings.

Last night, shadow treas-urer Joe Hockey said the in-tervention by Treasury andFinance had ‘‘destroyed . . .the last sliver of credibilityKevin Rudd had left’’.

‘‘Kevin Rudd has beenshown to be a liar and hiswords cannot be trusted,’’ MrHockey said.

Mr Rudd had cast the cost-ings as ‘‘a question of judg-ment’’, accusing the Coalit-ion of overestimatingsavings and wrongly ac-counting them.

‘‘This is a $10 billion fraudon the Australian people.People need to focus on it be-cause there will be more cutsto come,’’ Mr Rudd said.

But the Canberra manda-rins said the Treasury calcu-lations used by Labor werebased on a different methodof budgetary accounting andcould not be relied upon.

Mr Hockey on Wednesdayannounced just over $31 bil-lion worth of savings includ-ing plans to slash 12,000 pub-lic service jobs, slash smallbusiness assistance andsuperannuation changes.

Dr Parkinson and Mr Tuneundermined the Govern-ment’s central claims.

‘‘These costings were notprepared under the electioncostings commitmentsprocess outlined in the Char-ter of Budget Honesty Act1998,’’ they said.

Albanese promises boat ramp upgradeFISHOS are the latest groupto benefit from election prom-ises with $200,000 set aside toimprove the Palmerston boatramp — if Labor is elected.

Deputy Prime MinisterAnthony Albanese was inDarwin to make the an-nouncement flanked byLabor candidate for SolomonLuke Gosling.

Mr Albanese said themoney would be used tobuild a new caretaker’s resi-dence, kiosk, disabled toiletsand shade at the Palmerstonboat ramp on the ElizabethRiver, next to the first Chan-nel Island bridge.

‘‘We are investing to makefishing even better in theTerritory, through infra-

structure improvementssuch as what is beingproposed here at Palmer-ston,’’ he said.

Although the boat ramphas recently been upgradedMr Albanese said the moneywould be put to good use.

He said the hard work ofthe Palmerston Game Fish-ing Club had swayed the de-

cision to spend money thererather than at older, morerun-down ramps.

‘‘Work such as this has tocome up from the commun-ity,’’ he said. ‘‘The club hasdone the work.’’

The money will come out ofthe Government’s sportingcommunities initiative, al-ready included in the Budget.

Ricky Borg joined a flash mob from Rosebery Middle School to launch October Business month Picture: KATRINA BRIDGEFORD

Surprise dancers get down to businessBy JACKSON MILLER

A FLASH mob of 100 stud-ents from Rosebery MiddleSchool and St John’s Collegehas lit up the launch of Oct-ober Business Month.

An extravaganza of song,multimedia displays anddance was held yesterday atthe site of the new multi-

million-dollar urban villagein Parap, The Avenue.

Business Minister DavidTollner said this year’s OBMcalendar was full of profess-ional development and net-working opportunities tohelp local businesses growand prosper.

‘‘With 85 events over 31days, OBM will undoubtedly

be a busy and exciting timefor the Territory businesscommunity,’’ Mr Tollnersaid. ‘‘It is a time to energiseyour business, a time tonetwork with other businesspeople and a time toupskill yourself and yourworkforce.’’

Events will be held acrossthe Territory, with the

Chamber of Commerce’s An-nual Business Dinner inNhulunbuy, a Business Up-skills workshop in TennantCreek, the Customer ServiceAwards in Katherine, the2013 Tourism Central Aust-ralia Conference in AliceSprings, and the OBM offic-ial opening in Darwin andAlice Springs.