Labor says the coalition is wrong to claim a commitment to foreign aid blows a $19 billion hole in the budget.
Labor's foreign aid promise is listed as one of the biggest single contributors to the opposition's budget black hole, outlined by Treasurer Scott Morrison and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Tuesday.
Senator Cormann said Labor's deputy leader Tanya Plibersek had committed to the $19.2 billion figure in 2015, taking the total black hole to $67 billion.
However, the Labor policy statement released during the campaign only commits a Shorten government to providing $800 million more than the coalition on foreign aid over the next four years.
"Just because you make an announcement in relation to one part of a policy area doesn't mean that you have walked away from all of your commitments in the past," Senator Cormann told reporters in Canberra.
The government had committed to foreign aid funding that was "affordable, realistic, sustainable and effective".
Mr Morrison said the coalition backed the long-term aim of aid spending representing 0.5 per cent of gross national income.
"(But) the progression towards that timetable has to be affordable and ... we're not proposing any additional increases," he said.
Labor frontbencher Penny Wong said the government should read the opposition's policy before making any comment.
Senator Wong said the coalition was happy to have the same aspirational aim for foreign aid as the opposition, but put a different figure on it.
"That was a complete debacle from the treasurer and finance minister," she told reporters in Canberra.
Share
