The opposition's treasury spokesman Joe Hockey has been accused of lying to voters before the August 21 election by falsely claiming the federal coalition's policies had been audited.
The Sydney Morning Herald has produced documents showing the federal directors of the Liberal and National parties, Brian Loughnane and Brad Henderson, signed a letter to Perth accounting firm WHK Howarth confirming its work for the coalition was primarily "not of an audit nature".
This contradicted Mr Hockey's claim, on the day the costings were made public, that Australia's fifth biggest accounting firm was "auditing" its books.
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Labor senator Kate Lundy said the coalition had been deliberately misleading.
"Even the local treasurer at the junior football club knows what audit means," she told Sky News.
"This to me is a prima facie case of lying to the electorate."
But Liberal frontbencher Mitch Fifield defended Mr Hockey against suggestions he had lied to the public.
"Joe was using the word 'audit' in a colloquial sense, which the public would understand as having your numbers checked," he said.
