The Wire

Quibbling over implementation details is threatening to derail a new, independent budget office for federal parliament. The office would provide independent advice to the opposition, the minor parties and the independents.

These groups have long been at a disadvantage to the government of the day, because the government has the intellectual firepower of the treasury to assist it with policymaking.But now there is now a dispute about how the Parliamentary Budget Office should work.Political observers are hoping that the spat doesn’t derail the proposal. They say the new office would help the public to evaluate policy proposals.