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One Nation vows spending transparency but refuses to release policy costings

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Cite

Delaney, A. (2026, November 2). One Nation vows spending transparency but refuses to release policy costings. The Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/victoria/one-nation-vows-spending-transparency-but-refuses-to-release-policy-costings-20261102-p61ak6.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

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The Sydney Morning Herald · collected 2026-11-02 · by Angus Delaney

Quick Summary

Warren Pickering, leader of One Nation in Victoria, pledged to introduce an online real-time expenditure tracker if his party is elected but refused to release financial costings for its policy proposals before the upcoming election. This stance was taken despite criticism from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) and concerns about the accuracy of their own previous estimates. The PBO, established in 2018 to provide independent policy costings, questioned One Nation’s refusal to use its services, highlighting a discrepancy where One Nation initially estimated policy costs at $136 million but was later found by the PBO to be over $500 million higher.
Written by AI on 2026-11-02, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

One Nation's Victorian leader Warren Pickering vowed on November 2, 2026, to create an online real-time expenditure tracker if elected in the upcoming Victorian election. However, the party refuses to release costings for its policy proposals despite criticism from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) for underestimating costs previously. When questioned about voter trust given their refusal to use PBO costings, Pickering defended his stance by questioning the accuracy of the PBO's projections over the past decade, claiming they have been inaccurate and not worth using. This stance has raised concerns among voters and opposition parties like the Liberal Party about One Nation’s financial transparency and stability.

Written for “One Nation Spending Transparency Policy” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.35, but all 3 of its quote(s) are attributed speech - words the article quotes from someone, not the article's own narration, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 122338: attributed speech only · logged 2026-11-02

Story

📰 One Nation Spending Transparency Policy
Politics · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
21
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
14%
3 of 21 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
61/100
The Sydney Morning Herald's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-02 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Sydney Morning Herald · 5806 article(s) · 15 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 15 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Angus Delaney
17 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Asked how voters could trust the minor party to deliver financially stable and transparent policies when it had refused to release costings and use the PBO, Pickering said the independent agency had been inaccurate over the past decade.
🔮 More than 300 fire trucks would be added to Victoria’s ageing fleet over the next five years under an election promise from the state opposition, as it seeks to win back the regions from Labor and stave off One Nation.
🔮 If the polls are to be believed, law and order will be a decisive factor when voters decide on November 28 whether to turf Labor out.
🔮 That’s open until November 9 for people to nominate to be candidates and then our preferences will be done.”
🔮 Three Liberal sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations, said the state executive had realised the party could be dragged into the court case.
🔮 The government will on Thursday announce that the Arden Central renewal project in North Melbourne will be reserved almost exclusively for first-home buyers, with 74 per cent (4000 of 5400) of the planned new dwellings to be set aside for people trying to enter the market.
🔮 Labor will slash costs for foreign investors building homes in Victoria and review levies on overseas developers, as part of a renewed effort to roll back property taxes that industry chiefs have warned are holding back the state from meeting its housing targets.
🔮 In an apparent effort to defuse the scandal, Heavy Hire was told on Wednesday it would be removed from some state government sites.
🔮 Developers now have permission to convert a former orphanage into apartments in Surrey Hills that will rise above local height rules and to build a 15-storey apartment tower in Oakleigh three levels higher than the government’s own limit.
🔮 We will always operate absolutely within the confines of the law.”
Also by Angus Delaney
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 17 articles by Angus Delaney →

Topics

One Nation One Nation’s PBO Victorian the Liberal Party

Subjects

PBO ORG · 10× One Nation ORG · 5× Pickering PERSON · 3× One Nation’s ORG · 2× Victorian NORP · 2× the Liberal Party ORG · 2× Rikkie-Lee Tyrell PERSON · 1× Warren Pickering PERSON · 1× Xavier Rimmer PERSON · 1× the Parliamentary Budget Office ORG · 1×

Narrative

One Nation deputy leader Colleen Harkin initially told reporters the party’s plan to cover out-of-pocket pregnancy expenses for women in public hospitals, give $2000 payments to pregnant mothers in the private system and provide two $150 sport vouchers for school-aged children every year would cost $136 million over a four-year term.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-02
🔮 Asked how voters could trust the minor party to deliver financially stable and transparent policies when it had refused to release costings and use the PBO, Pickering said the independent agency had been inaccurate over the past decade.
2026-11-02 · The Sydney Morning Herald
One Nation vows spending transparency but refuses to release policy costings · assertive framing

Claims (21 extracted, 3 hedged)

One Nation has vowed to create an online, real-time expenditure tracker as a way of revolutionising “the way that that budgets are done in this state” if elected, while refusing to release costings for its policy proposals before Victorian voters head to the polls. asserted
voters → vow → polls
Speaking on Monday, the party’s Victorian leader, Warren Pickering, criticised the financial records of the major parties and questioned the accuracy of the Parliamentary Budget Office, which is responsible for independently costing policy proposals. asserted
which → speak → proposals
One Nation recently came under scrutiny from the PBO for what the office found to be a massive underestimate of the cost of a group of policies. asserted
office → come → policies
Asked how voters could trust the minor party to deliver financially stable and transparent policies when it had refused to release costings and use the PBO, Pickering said the independent agency had been inaccurate over the past decade. uncertain
agency → ask → decade
“We know there’s some great people at the PBO, but the reality is, when has one of their cost projections been accurate in the last decade?” he said. asserted
he → know → decade
“Why would we waste energy, effort and resources utilising a system that we know they don’t have access to everything they need? asserted
they → waste → everything
“No, we won’t be engaging in that until we have an opportunity to blow the books open ourselves and revolutionise the way that that budgets are done in this state.” asserted
budgets → engage → state
The PBO was established in 2018 to provide all MPs with independent expertise, including policy costings around elections. asserted
PBO → establish → elections
It acts as the state’s fiscal umpire and is staffed by economists and researchers who use financial modelling systems and can access public service information, making its predictions comparable to government costings. One Nation has had access to PBO services since its MP Rikkie-Lee Tyrell was elected to the upper house in 2022. asserted
Tyrell → act → 2022
Asked about Pickering’s comments, Parliamentary Budget Officer Xavier Rimmer encouraged all parties to make use of the office’s unique insights. asserted
Rimmer → ask → insights
“While there are alternatives to the PBO’s election costing service, only the PBO’s service combines expertise and independence, with comparability across parties,” Rimmer said. asserted
Rimmer → be → parties
One Nation’s refusal to release costings for its policies raises major questions ahead of an election in which debt is a major concern for voters and a threat to the state’s prosperity. asserted
debt → release → prosperity
Last month, One Nation was forced to clarify its costings for proposed family policies after PBO costings commissioned by the Liberal Party found they could blow out by more than $500 million. uncertain
they → force → million
One Nation deputy leader Colleen Harkin initially told reporters the party’s plan to cover out-of-pocket pregnancy expenses for women in public hospitals, give $2000 payments to pregnant mothers in the private system and provide two $150 sport vouchers for school-aged children every year would cost $136 million over a four-year term. asserted
plan → tell → term
But at the request of the Liberal Party, the PBO independently costed the plan at $688.7 million – $553 million more than One Nation’s estimate. asserted
PBO → cost → estimate
The independent costings showed the sports voucher policy alone would be likely to cost taxpayers $471.3 million. asserted
policy → show → million
The figures prompted Harkin to revise her position, telling The Australian the estimate was per year, not over four years. asserted
estimate → prompt → years
This would still create a $144.7 million shortfall on the PBO costings. asserted
This → create → costings
Pickering said on Monday that the party would not be making any costings public because it first wanted to conduct an audit of the government’s finances. asserted
it → say → finances
“We believe that the books are sufficiently cooked to warrant a full investigation,” he said. asserted
he → believe → investigation
“Now, having done that, we will then resource, allocate according to need. uncertain
we → do → need
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