Chief Minister Andrew Barr has encouraged voters to check the "terms and conditions" of promises made by the Canberra Liberals, as the opposition continued its attacks over the cost of employing more healthcare workers.
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee accused Mr Barr of failing to have Labor's policy of employing 800 extra healthcare staff costed, and would not directly say whether more healthcare staff would be employed under a Liberal government.
"What he has failed to do to date is be upfront with the Canberra community about how the 800 healthcare workers, which was the very first signature policy that ACT Labor came out with in May this year, is going to be funded," Ms Lee said.
However, Mr Barr said the cost of the commitment was accounted for in separate policies submitted for Treasury assessment, and partially outlined in the territory budget.
"What we have done is submit the individual initiatives as we've announced them. And the major one was in the budget, and that's already accounted for. Budget paper three, the budget outlook, pages 150 and 151," Mr Barr said.
"So it's already there. It's been there for months."
Mr Barr and Ms Lee have been trading barbs over election costings for the past week, after the Liberals released a payroll tax cut policy with limited detail which prompted a round of competing costings.
"What happens with the Liberals is that they announce something and they don't go to the terms and conditions, and what's submitted for costing is different often from the announcement," Mr Barr said on Monday.
"They've been caught out on this on a few policies now where it sounds great with the big announcement, but they don't include any of the details.
"I think consumers are used to that little line at the end of an ad: 'Check the Ts and Cs.' Well, that's what voters should be doing here on the Liberals."
Employing another 800 healthcare staff would cost hundreds of millions of dollars between 2024 and 2029, a Labor spokeswoman said.
"Annually, the ACT invests $2.6 billion in our health system, that is around one third of all government expenditure. This includes the salaries, wages and superannuation of our hard working health staff," the spokeswoman said.
"The 800 additional staff will cost hundreds of millions of dollars across the period 2024-2029 and be met from future budget provisions that anticipate a continuation of health budget allocations consistent with the existing share of the budget."
Mr Barr said Labor had been clear its policy was to hire an extra 800 healthcare workers - including nurses, doctors, specialists and allied health professionals - over five budgets.
Ms Lee said the Chief Minister still had no idea how he was going to fix the health system, which she said Labor had taken from being the best in the country to the worst.
But the Opposition Leader did not directly answer the question of whether the healthcare workforce would increase under the Canberra Liberals.
"There's no doubt that we need to fix our health system and that is why our Canberra Liberals government will undertake a very, very comprehensive royal commission that will look at the huge issues, the major problems that have plagued the ACT health system under this Labor-Greens government," she said.
"But in addition to that we've also announced a number of initiatives to attract, train and retain healthcare workers in the ACT."
