Ms GILLARD (Lalor—Prime Minister) (14:00): Let me assure the Leader of the Opposition that this government will always properly cost policies and we will identify savings. I remind the Leader of the Opposition that, despite the carry-on on the other side, we have been offsetting new expenditure since 2009. I would remind the opposition of that. What I would remind the opposition of, as well, is that it is very important, in this year of all years, that Australians are able to compare policies, their merits, their costs and where the savings are coming from. I am indebted to the shadow minister for finance for clarifying, in the Federation Chamber yesterday, on behalf of the opposition: … every day we hear in the main chamber … and in the other place, cries of 'Where are your costings?' And he says, on behalf of the opposition: Of course the costings have been done. Then he goes on to say: What no-one knows, including us, is how any of these things can be funded. I think it ought to be very clear to the shadow minister for finance and to the opposition generally that what we need to do—what everyone needs to do—in this fiscal environment is identify offsetting savings for new expenditure. Opposition members interjecting— Ms GILLARD: The member for Goldstein is yelling out, 'No, you don't,' which means that he must have a plan to add to expenditure. If his plan is not to add to expenditure then he must identify offsetting savings. The opposition is engaged in a fiction that this can only be done after the pre-election fiscal outlook is delivered. That is nonsense. Today, if the Leader of the Opposition is in possession of costed policies, he could start identifying the matching savings. If he does not do that transparently then Australians are entitled to conclude that that money will come in secret cuts in the way in which the Newman government has proceeded in Queensland. It is overseen by a commission of audit, but what it equals is cuts that cost jobs, cuts that destroy services, cuts that hit hospitals, cuts that hit schools. So if the Leader of the Opposition has a new-found interest in budget matters—if you have your costed policies, and your shadow minister for finance says that you do—he should put out the matching savings and allow Australians to judge them.