The Parliamentary Budget Office has highlighted independent MP Helen Haines’ role in parliamentary accountability, noting that she was the only independent member to have all her election commitments costed in the two most recent election commitments reports.
Parliamentary Budget Officer Sam Reinhardt made the comments during a Senate estimates hearing on Monday, as senior officials offered their support and well wishes for Haines. Reinhardt said the office recognised that the member for Indi had played an important role in parliamentary accountability and transparency.
The PBO’s published reports confirm that Haines opted into the election commitments costing process for both the 2022 and 2025 federal elections. Independent MPs and minor parties can choose to participate, while the major parliamentary parties are included in the reports. The process provides estimates of the budget effects of qualifying election commitments, helping voters assess the potential financial implications of proposed policies.
The PBO’s 2025 report included 15 election commitments from Haines. It estimated that, if fully implemented, her platform would reduce the underlying cash balance by $8.2 billion over the forward estimates and $14.7 billion over the medium term, compared with the pre-election economic and fiscal outlook baseline. These figures are projections of the platform’s potential budget impact, not a record of money already spent.
The office’s guidance says commitments are assessed when they have been publicly announced, are sufficiently specific to be costed and have a material impact on the federal budget. Minor parties and independent MPs may opt into the process, and the PBO determines which commitments meet the criteria.
Haines’ participation in the reports has made her policy commitments subject to published costing documentation comparable in approach to that used for major parties. The PBO’s comments underline the role of transparent costings in allowing parliament and the public to scrutinise proposed policies.
Read the PBO’s 2025 report on Helen Haines’ election commitments and its 2022 report for the independent member for Indi for the published policy costings and budget estimates.
