Joe Hockey has today told the Coalition party room that reports about the Oppositions $70 billion black hole are complete BS despite his colleague Andrew Robb confirming the figure on no less than four occasions.
In relation to the $70 billion figure, Andrew Robb has stated:
"It's no great piece of investigative journalism. It's a case of simple arithmetic." (ABC AM, 12 August 2011)
The $70 billion is an estimate of the sort of challenge that we will have. (ABC NewsRadio, 16 August 2011)
The $70 billion is an indicative figure of the challenge that weve got. (ABC24, 18 August 2011)
No, it's not a furphy. We came out with the figure, right? (Meet The Press, 4 September 2011)
The figure was originally put into the public arena through minutes from the Oppositions own budget meetings, leaked to the Seven Network.
Mr Hockey himself told Sunrise the Opposition was looking at a shortfall of $50, $60 or $70 billion the figure he now describes as complete BS.
This is an economic team that cannot even agree on the most basic economic facts.
Given the size of the black hole facing the Opposition, its not surprising they are running from proper scrutiny by changing their position on the Parliamentary Budget Office.