The Independent bloc urged Treasury to assess the the election promises made by the Tony Abbott's Coalition and Julia Gillard's Labor.

“We need to establish where the budget bottom line is and what we are talking about in terms of the promises made by each side,” independent Tony Windsor insisted. The Independents asked Treasury to reveal the costs on Tuesday.

The Coalition promised a budget surplus $11.5 billion larger than Labor. The Treasury assessed its broadband savings; however, the figures were leaked to the media. Abbott's group now refused to submit its policies to Treasury for costing.

According to Abbott, he was against the independents having access to the Treasury assessment because “the public service are not able to provide advice on opposition parties in the same depth as (they could on) government policies.”

The Coalition's $8.8 billion paid parental leave proposal is so far the biggest policy held back from Treasury costing. The Department of Finance's budget rules would force the Coalition to pull out $3 billion of investments out of the health and education funds and the Building Australia Fund.

The Coalition earlier claimed that the paid parental leave would be sourced from capital investments.

Gillard said the departments would have made a likely budget under the Coalition. “It will not require Treasury and Finance to start with a blank piece of paper and calculator in hand,” the Prime Minister said.