The Labor Party has repeatedly claimed the Coalition needs to make cuts of $70 billion to vital services to balance the budget.

It says there is a "black hole" in the Coalition's election promises.

In the first debate of the election campaign, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd accused the Coalition of being evasive over its costings.

"The facts are these. Mr Hockey, Mr Abbott's Treasury spokesman, has said the Liberal Party faces a $70 billion funding gap - their figure, not ours," Mr Rudd said.

"Senator Wong, the Finance Minister, has verified that in a statement as recently as last week, in detail, line by line."

Sorry, this video has expired Kevin Rudd's $70 billion black hole claim not credible

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott responded during the debate, saying the $70 billion dollar claim is "simply a fantasy".

Mr Rudd also referred to the $70 billion when he called the election on August 4.

ABC Fact Check asked the Prime Minister's office at that time for details about the figure and was referred to Finance Minister Penny Wong, who released a document titled 'Opposition budget' on August 3.

The document says a budget hole will "need to be filled through drastic cuts to services like health and education".

It includes a table titled 'Estimated budget impact of Opposition policies'.

The 19 Coalition promises listed in the table total $69.7 billion - just shy of the $70 billion figure.

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Misleading items in the table

The largest item in the table, costed at $19.7 billion, is misleading.

This item is described as "2010 savings no longer available to offset policies".

The document says some of these savings - $10.6 billion - are no longer available because they include "errors made by the Opposition in the 2010 election, and uncovered by the Department of Finance and the Treasury post-election".

This is a reference to a Treasury analysis of the Coalition's 2010 election promises. The analysis was first published by the Independent Member for New England, Tony Windsor, on September 2, 2010.

The claim: Kevin Rudd says the Opposition would have to make $70 billion in cuts to match the Government's path to budget surplus.

Kevin Rudd says the Opposition would have to make $70 billion in cuts to match the Government's path to budget surplus. The verdict: The figure, based on Labor's estimate of the Coalition's budget costings, is not credible. It includes outdated spending plans and outdated revenue reductions.

The figure, based on Labor's estimate of the Coalition's budget costings, is not credible. It includes outdated spending plans and outdated revenue reductions. Watch John Barron present the facts

Labor cannot know for sure that the $10.6 billion "errors" remain part of Coalition policy.

Senator Wong's document says other savings measures are no longer available because they refer to Coalition policies that have been discontinued.

The discontinued policies listed in the document include the Renewable Energy Future Fund and Greenstart. No individual costings are given.

ABC Fact Check asked Senator Wong's office for more details.

The emailed reply said:

"Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey have repeatedly said that they have identified cuts they would make and the 2010 figure in the document we prepared represents some of those cuts which are no longer available to them to take to offset their new spending."

The email did not provide a full, individually costed list of the discontinued policies.

Another questionable item in Senator Wong's document is a $3.36 billion cost for abolishing the means test for the private health insurance rebate.

The Coalition has been saying all year that although it opposes the means test, it has shelved its plan to abolish it.

"We would like to see that means test gone because we believe in a universal health system... But given the fiscal situation that we are in we haven't set a time frame and I'm not setting a time frame now as to when we might be able to do that," Mr Abbott told the National Press Club on January 31.

Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb confirmed this stance on August 4, the day after Senator Wong published her document.

"The Coalition has noted that it will not be possible to remove the means test immediately owing to the budget emergency Labor has created," Mr Robb said.

Senator Wong's document also says the Coalition will spend $2.05 billion on a dams and water management policy.

Mr Robb said on August 4 this figure was based on a draft of a discussion paper and not on a policy.

"Labor has simply invented a $2.05 billion cost for a Coalition 'dams and water management policy' which has not been announced or released, based on made-up assumptions about press reports of a draft discussion paper," he said.

Mr Robb's overall response to the document was: "The Coalition's savings task will be based on the policies it takes to the next election, for which we will carefully outline sufficient new savings".

The Parliamentary Budget Office, charged with reviewing election costings, told ABC Fact Check it was not in a position to confirm the figures presented in the document.

Senator Wong was asked on Radio National Breakfast on August 7 whether the $19.7 billion figure - "2010 savings no longer available to offset policies" - should have been included in the table.

Asked whether the total figure should have been $50 billion, Senator Wong replied: "Well, $50 billion's still a pretty big figure".

The verdict

The $70 billion black hole figure, which is based on Labor's estimate of the cost of the Coalition's election promises, is not credible.

The total includes outdated spending plans and outdated revenue reductions. It is a vague and misleading document.

Only when the Coalition releases its spending and taxing plans in full will Labor be able to criticise its policies accurately.