17 Nov 2011

Dunne suggests panel to cost big ticket policies

6:37 am on 17 November 2011

United Future leader Peter Dunne is calling for an independent panel to be established to test parties' policy costings.

He says voters would be well served by a group of experts able to work out the maths on each party's financial figures.

Mr Dunne says if parties refused to submit costings, the public could judge their credibility and whether they had anything to hide.

He says at the moment, the major parties contradict each other on policy costs and voters end up confused.

Mr Dunne says some of the promises in this year's campaign have been accompanied by some pretty "back of the envelope" calculations.

He says it should be the big ticket policies, such as changes to GST, that are put forward to the panel.