Pickering tested on party costings in tense press event

Detailed summary

One Nation's Victorian leader has been grilled by question-hungry journalists as he outlined his pathway for the state ahead of the election.

One Nation's Victorian leader Warren Pickering has slammed net zero aspirations as a national self-harm and vowed to blow the state's debt-riddled finances wide open in a tense press event 16 days out from the election.

Question-hungry journalists gathered on Thursday for the chance to grill the Pakenham candidate and One Nation Victorian president in a speaking event organised by the Melbourne Press Club and Rural Press Club of Victoria.

Mr Pickering is vying to become Victoria's next leader on November 28 in what the electoral commission expects to be the state's most complicated count.

Delivering a 20-minute keynote address, Mr Pickering outlined his party's plan to erase net zero ambitions, make government documents and spending publicly available and overhaul the police, corrections and judicial systems to make Victoria the toughest state on crime.

Despite journalists criticising a lack of formal policy costings, Mr Pickering denied the pledges would take Victoria past the current debt forecast of $199 billion by 2029-30.

"Our budget is not about costings, it's about savings," Mr Pickering retorted.

"We intend to offset that with billions in savings once we take control and we can conduct a full audit of the treasury."

One of One Nation's largest budget savings would come by slashing what he labelled "net zero scam" projects, along with ripping up Victoria's Treaty.

"We're the only party dedicated to ending this national self-harm," he said of renewable energy projects.

Opening of the article, excerpted from PerthNow. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.