Labor’s plan ‘costed, coherent and credible’, Treasurer says
Costings have been one of the last elements that the big parties reveal come election time.
The opposition is yet to say exactly what all of its promises will cost and how they will be paid for. It’s a point Jim Chalmers is pretty keen to exploit.
It is long past time for the coalition to come clean on their secret cuts to pay for their nuclear reactors. They need to come clean on what their secret cuts for nuclear reactors means for Medicare, for pensions, and payments, for skills and housing, and other essential investments in the budget …
Labor is the only party going to this election on Saturday with a costed, coherent and credible plan.
Cutting contractors from the public service isn’t a totally shocking move from Labor.
As my colleague Henry Belot reported, Katy Gallagher had told Guardian Australia she’s been working on this policy for some time:
Key events
What are the main spending and savings items in Labor’s costings?
The bottom line (the budget bottom line, that is) will improve by $1bn over the forward estimates.
So instead of cumulative of budget of $151.6bn, the government says the deficits will come in at $150.5bn.
Labor has promised to raise the money for its election commitments by cutting the number of consultants, contractors and labor hire workers in the public service, which they claim will save $6.4bn over the forwards.
They’ve also said they’ll raise an extra $760m by increasing the cost of student visa applications to $2000 from 1 July – but that increase won’t apply to students from Pacific Islands or Timor-Leste.
The biggest spending item that Labor’s announced during the campaign, is the $1000 instant tax deduction for work expenses. Over the forwards, that’ll cost about $2.4bn.
Chalmers: biggest risk to Australia’s AAA credit rating is Peter Dutton
As my colleague Patrick Commins reported earlier, S&P Global Ratings has warned that big spending election commitments from the big parties could risk further undermining Australia’s fiscal position and put the country’s “AAA” debt rating at risk.
The agency’s report said:
The budget is already regressing to moderate deficits as public spending hits postwar highs, global trade tensions intensify, and growth slows … How the elected government funds its campaign pledges and rising spending will be crucial for maintaining the rating.
Asked about the report and the level of campaign spending, Jim Chalmers throws the focus on to Peter Dutton.
The biggest risk to our AAA credit rating is Peter Dutton and the Coalition. They won’t come clean on their cuts. They’ve got more than $60bn of commitments.
Chalmersdeflected questions about whether Labor will maintain a AAA credit rating, and if he is committed to cutting the forecast budget deficit.
He spoke more retrospectively about Labor’s budget surpluses and savings, and again attacked Dutton for not yet having released the Coalition’s costings.
I am sure the ratings agencies have noticed the record turn around, nominal turn around in the budget on our watch. Responsible economic management is ongoing, it is not a destination.
Chalmers: Labor’s cuts to number of consultants has improved the budget
Labor choosing to cut consultants continues the war between Labor and the Coalition on the size of the public sector.
Jim Chalmers accuses the previous government of having “hollowed out” the public sector, which led to consultants being hired to fill capability gaps.
We’ve invested in more capacity for the public service. We’ve gotten through all of that shameful backlog in Veterans’ claims, for example. And one of the ways that we’ve improved the budget is to wind back the wasteful spending of our predecessors on contractors and on consultants and some of these other areas.
Labor’s plan ‘costed, coherent and credible’, Treasurer says
Costings have been one of the last elements that the big parties reveal come election time.
The opposition is yet to say exactly what all of its promises will cost and how they will be paid for. It’s a point Jim Chalmers is pretty keen to exploit.
It is long past time for the coalition to come clean on their secret cuts to pay for their nuclear reactors. They need to come clean on what their secret cuts for nuclear reactors means for Medicare, for pensions, and payments, for skills and housing, and other essential investments in the budget …
Labor is the only party going to this election on Saturday with a costed, coherent and credible plan.
Cutting contractors from the public service isn’t a totally shocking move from Labor.
As my colleague Henry Belot reported, Katy Gallagher had told Guardian Australia she’s been working on this policy for some time:
Finance minister: Labor has saved, reprioritised $100bn
Katy Gallagher says that over the past three years, Labor has saved and reprioritised $100bn.
Today she says in the costings, Labor will save $6.4bn from “non-wage” expenses in another term of government.
She says this will come from further reducing contractors and consultants in the public service over the forward estimates.
We’ve managed in the first term to find about $5.3bn in savings in those areas. So this is really a continuation of that effort.
We’re very pleased that we’ve been able to do this hard work. We’ve been able to offset the commitments that we’ve made post-PEFO for those that were announced beforehand, we’ve found room in the budget for those.
*PEFO is the pre-election fiscal outlook.
Chalmers spruiks Labor’s ‘responsible economic management’ as government releases costings
Treasurer Jim Chalmers and finance minister Katy Gallagher are releasing Labor’s election costings.
Chalmers says “responsible economic management” has been a “defining feature” of Labor’s election campaign.
So far, Chalmers is doing a highlight reel of what Labor believes are its strongest wins on the economy – such as low unemployment, and the savings Labor has made from the budget.
Back-to-back surpluses for the first time in almost two decades. A much smaller deficit this year – $177bn less Liberal debt, saving tens of billions of dollars in debt interest; $100bn in savings.
This is what responsible economic management looks like, and it has been a defining feature of the government that Anthony Albanese leads.
Gallagher, who’s been in charge of finding savings, says the government has gotten rid of “a lot of the waste and rorts” from the budget.
Bandt: Liberals are ‘resorting to dangerous lies’ to save their election chances
Greens leader Adam Bandt has responded to Peter Dutton calling the Greens an “antisemitic, Jew-hating” party.
Bandt says the comments are “reprehensible, offensive and utterly untrue”.
In a statement to Guardian Australia, Bandt said the comments were also “dangerous”.
Those comments are reprehensible, offensive and utterly untrue, and moreover they are dangerous at a time when far-right movements are emboldened by Donald Trump’s presidency.
The Liberals are resorting to dangerous lies because their campaign is in freefall. I will not be lectured to by someone who has made a career out of punching down and trying to use race to win votes.
Inching closer but Dutton still staying clear of proposed nuclear power plant sites
You might have seen our coverage last week of Peter Dutton failing to go near the seven communities where the Coalition has pledged to build nuclear power plants.
Dutton has said he has visited some of the sites and has spoken to nearby communities, but he hasn’t done this since the PM called the election campaign.
So far, the closest he’s been is about 66km away from a proposed site, when he visited Maitland in the NSW Hunter region.
He had another opportunity today to visit a site in the same region, but was still 65kms away.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Selfies, handshakes, baby hugs – Albanese presses the flesh in Sydney’s Cabramatta
Albanese has just taken part in a rare event in modern elections – the street walk.
The prime minister and his candidate in the south-western Sydney seat of Fowler, Tu Le, enjoyed an afternoon stroll down Freedom Plaza in the heart of Cabramatta.
Not surprisingly, the sight of the prime minister – not to mention a throng television cameras – quickly drew a crowd of curious and excited onlookers.
Albanese and Le posed for selfies, shook hands, hugged babies – all without a single heckle.
Labor is keen to regain the seat from the independent Dai Le, who defeated then frontbencher Kristina Keneally in one of the biggest shocks of the 2022 election.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Australia’s Voice candidate accuses Albanese government of Gaza genocide complicity
Albanese is not wasting a minute on the hustings today.
He spent all of five minutes at an Eastwood early poll station with the Bennelong MP, Jerome Laxale, before the campaign caravan moved on.
Next stop is another polling station, this time in the suburb of Padstow in the seat of Banks.
As Albanese greeted voters, he was heckled by Emanie Darwiche, a NSW senate candidate for Australia’s Voice – the party founded by ex-Labor senator Fatima Payman.
Darwiche said the government was “complicit” in the genocide in Gaza.
“You are a hypocrite to the Australian Labor party,” she said.
Payman had a spectacular falling out with Labor after crossing the floor to support a Greens motion calling for Palestinian recognition.
The seat of Banks is held by the shadow foreign minister, David Coleman, on a margin of 2.6%.
Labor’s candidate is former diplomat Zhi Soon.
Bandt says ‘only non-negotiable’ for the Greens in case of minority government is not supporting Dutton
Kate Lyons
Adam Bandt has been asked about whether the Greens’ support for reforms to negative gearing laws to assist with housing affordability were a “non-negotiable” in discussions it might have with a Labor minority government.
“The only non negotiable thing for us is that we’re not going to support Peter Dutton,” Bandt said on Seven News. “He would be worse.”
Bandt said the Greens would negotiate in “good faith”, but would push to “see how far we can get and have the discussion” around reforming negative gearing, citing the Greens success with getting dental for children on Medicare through the parliament during the last minority Labor government.
“We’d go into any discussions in good faith, right? We know what the problem is,” said Bandt, who called the housing policies put forward during the campaign by the two big parties as a “dumpster fire of bad ideas that are going to push up house prices”.
Bandt said the Greens would look to protect people who had one investment property in addition to their family home, but that tax breaks for people with multiple investment properties should be reformed.
We’ve got first home buyers, younger generations, turning up at an auction, trying to bid with their life savings and next to them is someone who’s got five properties, who’s got a big cheque in their pocket from Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton. If we could wind that back even a bit, it would make a big difference to first home buyers …
What we did last time, for example, where there was a minority parliament, we went in there – we want to get dental into Medicare for everyone – we got it in for kids. That was a good start. Similarly with this, we know there’s people in government, even in the opposition, who know that these tax handouts for property investors aren’t working … So we’ll go in and see how far we can get and have the discussion.
Bandt says he won’t take lectures from Dutton, after opposition leader calls Greens a ‘Jew-hating party’
Adam Bandt has responded to comments from opposition leader Peter Dutton who called the Greens an “antisemitic, Jew-hating party” at a press conference just an hour ago, saying he will not “take lectures from someone who has made a career out of punching down”.
In reference to Labor’s preferencing of the Greens across many electorates, Dutton told reporters:
This is an antisemitic, Jew-hating party. They have been involved in all sorts of horrible doxing and comments online that are repugnant but not repudiated by the prime minister
Asked about those comments in an interview on Seven News, Bandt, the Greens leader, said:
I’m not going to take lectures from someone who has made a career out of punching down and hurting marginalised communities in an attempt to win votes, because that’s what Peter Dutton has done, and he continues to do it to this day. We have been crystal clear. Australia is a multicultural society. We have always opposed antisemitism, Islamophobia, any form of racism. But we’ve also said clearly, look, armies have got to stop killing children. We are seeing a slaughter in Gaza. And we’re just saying really, really simply that the bombing has to stop.
Dutton won’t say if Fowler candidate should be disendorsed, calls ACT’s Barr ‘incompetent’
Asked again by another reporter about whether the Liberal candidate in Fowler, Vivek Singha, should be told to stand down or be disendorsed, Dutton won’t say.
I answered that question earlier.
However, he hasn’t said if the candidate should be stood down. Reporters had asked whether he was still an appropriate candidate, but Dutton only said that Singha had apologised, “and so he should have”.
Another reporter asks about ACT chief minister Andrew Barr’s comments that the Coalition’s public servants policy would put the territory into a recession.
Dutton again won’t address the question, and accuses Barr of being, “one of the most incompetent economic managers that Labor has produced.”
Dutton calls the Greens an ‘antisemitic, Jew-hating party’
Earlier on in the press conference, Dutton accused the Greens of being an “antisemitic, Jew-hating party”.
In reference to Labor’s preferencing of the Greens across many electorates, Dutton said:
This is an antisemitic, Jew-hating party. They have been involved in all sorts of horrible doxing and comments online that are repugnant but not repudiated by the prime minister
Dutton: welcome to country ceremonies shouldn’t be held at Anzac dawn ceremonies
Dutton is then asked whether Anzac dawn ceremonies are “significant” enough to hold welcome to country ceremonies.
Dutton says “no”.
No. It is ultimately for the organisers of the events, and they can make the decision based on their membership and what their board wants to do …
Anzac Day is about our veterans, about 103,000 Australians who have died in the service of our country. I think if you are listening to their sentiment, and we are respectful of that sentiment on Anzac Day, I think the majority view would be that they don’t want it on that day.
This debate was sparked by hecklers booing the welcome to country ceremony at the Anzac day dawn ceremony in Melbourne on Friday.
All political leaders condemned the booing, but there’s been a pretty big difference in the responses about whether that ceremony should still take place during an Anzac day service.
Albanese was asked about it on 2GB and said the ceremony was “a matter of respect”.
Dutton: welcome to country OK for ‘significant’ events, not for landing of Qantas planes
Last night, Peter Dutton called welcome to country ceremonies “overdone”. This morning he is asked when it’s appropriate to have those ceremonies.
Dutton says a “significant event” like the opening of parliament would warrant a ceremony, and hammers his point that he only wants to stand in front of one flag.
I want to provide support to practical reconciliation. The prime minister’s policy is to please inner-city greens, which is not something we signed up to.
Dutton is later pushed on whether Qantas, whose staff announce an acknowledgment of country when their planes land, is an example of “overdoing it”.
Dutton says:
I think that is over the top. I have been very clear about that.
Should Qantas abandon the acknowledgment?
I think it should be reserved for significant events of our country
Dutton says Coalition not planning road user charges for EVs
Dutton is asked about whether the Coalition is considering a road user charge on electric vehicles.
He says there are no plans to do that:
No, we don’t have plans in relation to that. Labor has spoken about it at a state level and maybe there is some policy that the government has got.
This debate has been going on for a long period of time in other parts of the world as well. We don’t have any proposal in relation to the tax.
Yesterday Bridget McKenzie wouldn’t rule it out, and neither would shadow energy minister Ted O’Brien this morning, who told ABC RN Breakfast, “We’ve made no decision on that. It’s certainly one of the big challenges for the next government”.
But shadow finance minister Jane Hume who was also on morning media, said the Coalition had no plans to change those road user charge rules.
Dutton doesn’t detail migration cuts but won’t ‘prioritise yoga teachers’
Our reporter Josh Butler follows up on that earlier question about where the Coalition’s migration cuts will come from.
Dutton says Albanese hadn’t spoken about his “big Australia policy” before the election.
We will cut the migration program, the permanent program by 25% and we will provide the settings once we have the economic advice in government. We have said we want to prioritise tradesmen and women who bring skills in to help build the houses. We won’t prioritise yoga teachers.
