Australian Labor Party

 

Interactions

The PBO expects interactions between Labor's election commitments to result in minimal differences in estimated impacts.

Implementation of commitments

 

The PBO identified 4 material election commitments affecting payments that have no net impact on the budget as they are wholly offset from within existing resources. In total, these commitments reflect the allocation of $186.4 million over the forward estimates of previously announced funding to specific projects (see Table 3‑2). These commitments are included in the list of commitments, but have no net impact on the Budget.

Table 3-2: Commitments funded through reallocation of existing resources, Labor

Commitment

Estimated cost offset from existing resources over the forward estimates ($ million)

Additional Funding to Support Urgent Care Clinics 

8.4

Building New Child Care Centres 

74.0

Perth Hills Resilience Package 

1.2

Upgrade To SciTech Discovery Centre 

102.8

Total

186.4

Source: PBO analysis.
Note: These commitments also appear in the tables in Appendix A. As they were assessed as having a nil impact on the budget they do not have a costing minute.

 

Departmental costs have generally been included by the PBO except where the party has specified that they would be absorbed within existing departmental resources or where the PBO has assumed they have been absorbed. For 2 material commitments across the Health and Aged Care portfolio, Labor specified that departmental costs would be absorbed within existing departmental resources (see Table 3‑3), estimated by the PBO to be equal to approximately $39 million over the forward estimates.[20] 

Table 3-3: Commitments with absorbed departmental expenses, Labor(a)

Portfolio

Number of commitments with absorbed expenses

Health and Aged Care

2

Total

2

Source: PBO analysis.
Note: A detailed breakdown of commitments with either PBO assumed or party specified absorbed departmental expenses in included in Appendix A.
(a) Estimated departmental cost absorbed has been calculated using the PBO’s departmental cost calculator, based on the specified administered amounts.

 

Labor has also committed to reducing overall departmental funding by more than $6.4 billion over the forward estimates through the commitment Further reducing spending on consultants, contractors and labour hire, and non-wage expenses (ECR-2025-1596). The impact of this commitment, on top of a forecast reduction in departmental spending over the forward estimates (see Box 3), creates downside risk to either the budget balance or policy objectives.

 

[20] These commitments are separate from the commitments where the PBO has determined that administration could reasonably be delivered within the existing resources of the relevant department, such as business as usual activities.