(1) A parliamentary leader who has received a pre‑election report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer may request the Officer to publicly release the report.
(2) A parliamentary leader who has been informed that the Parliamentary Budget Officer will stop preparing the pre-election report because of insufficient time or information may request the Officer to publicly release a statement explaining that decision.
(3) Subject to subsection (4), the Parliamentary Budget Officer must comply with a request under subsection (1) or (2) as soon as practicable after receiving it.
(4) The Parliamentary Budget Officer must not publicly release a pre-election report, or a statement referred to in subsection (2), after the end of the election costing period to which the report or statement relates.