BRENDAN Smyth says the Canberra Liberals will introduce legislation to establish an independent Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) to provide clarity and non-partisan analysis of the budget and policy costings.

“The (Parliamentary Budget Officer) Bill 2016 would establish the PBO as an independent officer the Assembly to undertake specified functions including; preparing policy costings for MLAs, support for the committee system, provide responses to budget papers and conduct research of budget papers and financial policy settings,” Brendan said.

“During election periods there is often considerable debate over policy costings and the PBO would provide clarity for the public over policy costs.

“The legislation would require the PBO to publicly release policy costings during election periods.

“The federal Parliamentary Budget Office was established in 2012 and has since provided a similar function for the Australian Parliament.

“I look forward to the Barr government’s and the Greens’ support of this legislation so the Assembly can move forward with clarity of policy costs and analysis,” Mr Smyth concluded.