A need for a Parliamentary Budget Office

Comments on Paul Kelly “Unique chance may be lost to brief distractions”, 27/08/2010, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/unique-chance-may-be-lost-to-brief-distractions/story-e6frgd0x-1225910632410
The independents have failed to understand the inherent problems of the Charter of Budget Honesty provisions for campaign costing.

They assume that Treasury and Finance are completely independent.

But that is a fatal and unrealistic assumption.

Opposition, whichever party it is at the time of an election, generally does not believe and trust that assumption.

Further, there is an unfair advantage in being government at the time of election, because it has had access to public services for costing/estimates that the opposition have not had.

PS: The following is Kelly first few paragraphs:
"AUSTRALIA risks losing its unique chance for better government.

The the three independents have failed to lodge a firm written request for either a Parliamentary Budget Office or a Debates Commission, both to be established by statute.
This failure is inexplicable. The lesson of this year's election campaign was the need for these two institutional reforms. They are needed because the Charter of Budget Honesty provisions for campaign costing are broken and the farce about leaders' debates demands to be resolved.
The independents can quickly achieve these real and lasting reforms. Yet they seem fixated by distractions - useless talk about "new paradigms", multi-party systems and consensus politics that will not last beyond the current, perhaps brief, parliament."