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7NEWS
01-05-2025
- Business
- 7NEWS
Federal Election 2025: Coalition slams Labor as it unveils costings
The Coalition claims it will reduce Australia's debt by more than $40 billion over four years by scrapping funding for housing, public servants, student debt write-offs, and electric car and green hydrogen subsidies. Peter Dutton said he will reduce the budget deficit by $14 billion over four years as well, while delivering cost-of-living help with a 25 cent a litre cut in the fuel excise, and a one-off $1200 cost of living tax offset for low and middle-income earners. The Coalition will release the rest of its costings on Thursday, while Labor has already revealed its economic plan. Labor is forecasting a decade of deficits and debt set to reach $1.2 trillion in 2028-29. 'Labor has delivered the longest per-capita recession on record and the biggest collapse in living standards in the developed world,' Opposition Treasurer Angus Taylor said. 'That's not bad luck, that's bad management. After raking in almost $400 billion in extra revenue, Labor chose to splurge instead of save, leaving Australians more exposed to the next economic shock. 'We will rebuild the nation's fiscal buffers, reduce debt, and begin budget repair because that's what economic responsibility looks like.' Coalition's savings and cuts The Coalition has detailed which parts of the budget it will take the knife to. It includes the $20 billion Rewiring the Nation Fund, the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, $14 billion of production tax credits — including for green hydrogen, public servant increases through natural attrition, $3 billion taxpayer-funded electric car subsidies, the $16 billion write-off of HELP debts for former university students, and $200 billion for Victoria's Suburban Rail Loop. The Coalition's spokesperson for finance, Jane Hume, said 'getting Australia back on track means tough choices and real leadership, not more lies and broken promises from Labor'. 'Labor's decade of deficits is a warning sign — they've ignored the IMF and credit agencies and are gambling with Australia's AAA credit rating,' Hume. said 'This won't just affect business but would impact all Australians. We can't afford more of Labor's reckless spending. 'The Coalition will restore discipline, reduce debt, and deliver cost-of-living relief that doesn't fuel inflation.' Labor hits back Labor's Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has hit back, calling the Coalition's plan a 'con job'. 'There will be cuts, savage cuts, that they have hidden all campaign ... to pay for their nuclear reactor scheme,' Gallagher said. 'It is a fraud to say you are improving the budget bottom line when you will need to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for nuclear reactors around the country. 'Students will pay more, there will be less housing and income taxes will rise. We (Labor) have made savings and found provisions to pay for our election commitments. 'Borrowing to fund a taxpayer funded nuclear energy system will bankrupt the budget, that is clear, and under those arrangements we won't be able to retain the triple-A credit rating.'
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Faster return to surplus promised in coalition costings
A crackdown on "wasteful" spending will fast-track the budget's return to surplus if the coalition wins the election, the shadow treasurer says. After days of speculation, the opposition on Thursday unveiled policy costings headlined by a budget bottom line improvement of $14 billion over the next four years. Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said the coalition would return the budget to surplus faster than Labor by paring back spending. "This is the biggest improvement in the budget position since the current costing conventions were put in place almost 15 years ago," he told reporters in Sydney. "We've laid out a $40 billion improvement in the debt position over (the next four years)." Labor's costings, released on Tuesday, showed a $7 billion budget improvement, delivered through a slash in spending on consultants and labour hire as well as increasing international student visa fees. The coalition costings said the budget deficit would increase by $5.6 billion in the 2025/26 financial year and be $2.3 billion worse off the following year, compared to pre-election forecasts. However, the next two financial years would see improvements of $9.5 billion and $2.2 billion. Spending cuts would come from a hiring freeze and natural attrition of 41,000 Canberra-based federal public servants, opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said. The plan would bring the public service "back to a sustainable level, while protecting front-line services delivery and national security positions". "Good economic management is about preparing for the future, not just patching up the present," she said. The costings also include plans to cut at least two of the Labor government's off-budget investment funds: the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, set up to build 30,000 new homes, and the $20 billion Rewiring the Nation Fund. Other cuts include scrapping student debt relief worth $16 billion, and unwinding Labor's decision to lower tax concessions for superannuation accounts with balances higher than $3 million. The coalition came under fire from the government for releasing its costings late in the campaign - however, it was released at the same point in the election as Labor did when it was in opposition at the 2022 poll. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the costings showed the coalition had what it takes to manage the books. "Australians know from their own experiences the economy will always be better managed under a Liberal-National government," Mr Dutton told reporters in Brisbane. "That lower debt means interest rates come down." The opposition's controversial plan to build seven nuclear reactors would set the budget back by $118 billion through to 2050. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday the costings from the opposition should not be taken seriously. Sign in to access your portfolio
News.com.au
30-04-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Federal election: Battle of the scare campaign emerges in dying days
Peter Dutton will axe Labor's plan to reduce university students' debt promising to slash the budget deficit by billions of dollars. Releasing the party's long awaited policy costings, the Liberals will also pledge to reduce the budget deficit by $10 billion and lower debt by $40 billion over the next four years. The Coalition will confirm on Thursday it will repeal the top-up income tax cuts announced in the March budget, which were worth $17 billion over four years. 'After raking in almost $400 billion in extra revenue, Labor chose to splurge instead of save, leaving Australians more exposed to the next economic shock,' opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor said. 'We will rebuild the nation's fiscal buffers, reduce debt and begin budget repair because that's what economic responsibility looks like.' It will scrap almost $14 billion of production tax credits for critical minerals and green hydrogen; abolish the $3 billion fringe benefits tax exemption for electric vehicles; and save about $10 billion by slashing jobs in the Commonwealth public sector. It will also cut the $20 billion Rewiring the Nation Fund and the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. Mr Dutton is also ramping up his claims that Labor is plotting a de facto 'inheritance tax' on super balances over $3 million, as the polls suggest he's taken another hit. Duelling scare tactics have emerged in the dying days of the campaign with the Labor Party targeting Mr Dutton's nuclear power plan and purported policy links to Donald Trump. But the final RedBridge-Accent poll published exclusively by News Corp newspapers has found that since the start of April, Labor has extended its two-party-preferred lead by an extra point to 53 per cent. If that result is accurate, PM Anthony Albanese will win the election in a minority and is even in the hunt for a surprise majority of 75-plus seats. As recently as November, Labor was behind 49 per cent to 51 per cent. The Coalition counters that the seat by seat polls suggest a tighter contest. RedBridge Director Kos Samaras said millennial and Gen Z voters are the biggest factor, with the Coalition's hopes being bashed 'against the rocks of diverse and young Australians, large numbers of whom live within critical seats.' Scare campaigns erupt As the Coalition prepares to unveil its election costings on Thursday promising a better bottomline to Labor, the Liberal leader has branded the Albanese government's proposed changes to superannuation as a 'quasi-inheritance tax'. Accusing Labor of pushing a 'socialist agenda' that punishes Australians for building wealth, Mr Dutton warned the proposed target would adversely impact retirees and small business owners. '(The super tax) is, in essence, an inheritance tax, because it's taking money away from people before they can access it for their superannuation or leave it to their children,' Mr Dutton told Sky News this week. 'The Labor Party believes in inheritance tax every day the week. It's part of their socialist agenda. 'They believe that you've got too much money and the person next door to you hasn't got enough, and how do we find a way to tax that?' However, he hasn't always mentioned that the tax changes – which remain highly controversial because they target unrealised gains – only apply to a tiny proportion of wealthy Australians with $3 million in their super. In Australia, the average super balance for men aged 55-59 is $316,457. For over 60s it's $402,838. Labor has failed to secure Senate support to legislate the increase the concessional tax rate on earnings from superannuation balances over $3 million. The policy would lift the tax rate from 15 to 30 per cent — affecting an estimated 80,000 Australians. What PM says on new super tax Mr Albanese was pressed on the plan today at the National Press Club insisting he doesn't resile from it. 'One of the most contentious parts of it is this method of raising revenue through taxing unrealised capital gains,' a press gallery journalist asked. 'There's opposition to that from the crossbench and other members of society. Now, would you be willing to pursue a compromise version of this and replace the unrealised capital gains method with a higher base tax rate for balances worth 3 million or more?' 'Oh, we have our policy. We've had legislation before the parliament and that's our policy,' Mr Albanese said. 'It will impact, importantly, 0.5 per cent of the superannuation population, 0.5 per cent. That's all. And it won't mean they don't get concessions. It'll just mean the concession isn't as large. That's our policy.' Asked if he was ruling out any changes, Mr Albanese replied 'No.' 'What I'm not doing is changing policy at the National Press Club,' he said. 'We have our legislation that's before people. And I've been transparent and on the income tax changes, I have the guts to come here and say this is what we are doing, this is why we are doing it.' Liberals target Penny Wong on the Voice Former prime minister Tony Abbott has claimed Penny Wong has delivered a 'two-fingered' salute to Australia after she hinted it wasn't over for The Voice. The Foreign Minister said the Voice, which was rejected by more than 60 per cent of Australians in a referendum in 2023, was now inevitable. 'I think we'll look back on it in 10 years' time and it'll be a bit like marriage equality,' she said on the Betoota Talks podcast. 'I always used to say, marriage equality, which took us such a bloody fight to get that done – and I thought, all this fuss – it'll become something, it'll be like, people go 'did we even have an argument about that?'' Mr Abbott said the Foreign Minister's comments show a flagrant disregard for the failure of the Voice referendum in October 2023. 'This is a giant two-fingered salute to the voters of Australia, who resoundingly said no to a Voice,' he said. 'What Penny Wong has admitted today is 'you're going to get the Voice anyway if we stay in government'. 'The only language people like Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese will understand is being booted out, because if they stay the Voice is coming regardless of how we voted, whether we like it or not.'
Sydney Morning Herald
30-04-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Dutton promises $40b debt cut as nuclear questions grow
The write-off of student debt, affecting both tertiary and vocational education students that the government estimates saves affected people about $5000, is due to start from June 1. But the Coalition would not go ahead with the proposal. Taylor accused the government of squandering hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of extra revenue over the past three years. 'After raking in almost $400 billion in extra revenue, Labor chose to splurge instead of save, leaving Australians more exposed to the next economic shock,' he said. 'We will rebuild the nation's fiscal buffers, reduce debt and begin budget repair because that's what economic responsibility looks like.' Gross government debt, currently $926 billion, is expected to go through $1 trillion in the coming financial year before reaching $1.2 trillion in 2028-29. In that year, the interest on the debt is expected to reach $38.2 billion. Taylor and Hume will promise to bring gross debt down by $40 billion. That will be partly achieved by axing the government's Rewiring the Nation Fund and stopping the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. The Coalition's costings will have to include the impact of its 25¢-a-litre cut in fuel excise for the next 12 months, worth $6 billion, and its one-off $1200 tax offset to low- and middle-income earners that is estimated to cost $10 billion. Chalmers accused the Coalition of being sneaky by holding back its costings, including key details about its nuclear policy, until the second-last day of the campaign. Chalmers did not release Labor's 2022 election costings until the Thursday before polling day. He said there were already black holes around the Coalition's mortgage interest deductibility, petrol excise and small-business fringe benefits tax reduction policies while it would attempt to use heroic assumptions around productivity growth to make its numbers add up. Loading 'They want to skate through all the way to the election, or as close as possible, without coming clean. I think that speaks volumes about the approach that they're taking,' Chalmers said. A key issue remains the Coalition's nuclear policy. Peter Dutton has slammed as a lie the government's claim that it will cost $600 billion, arguing CSIRO research shows it would cost $116 billion to deliver its planned five large-scale and two small modular reactors at seven sites across the country. The $116 billion figure is based on construction costs for a specific type of reactor – Westinghouse's AP1000, which is one of the most common and cheapest designs in use around the world. Coalition energy spokesman Ted O'Brien and Nationals Leader David Littleproud have promised not to use the AP1000 if it would reduce irrigation water to local farmers. The AP1000 requires significant amounts of water to cool its reactor. Former Land and Water Australia chief executive Andrew Campbell found there is not enough water at least five of the seven sites nominated by the Coalition for nuclear reactors, in his recent report commissioned by the Liberals Against Nuclear lobby group. Littleproud and O'Brien have separately raised the prospect of building what are known as dry cool reactors. However, according to the World Nuclear Association, they cost up to four times more than a typical water-cooled reactor such as the AP1000. Dry cooled reactors, which use air rather than water to dissipate heat from the plant's core, are not in commercial use at large-scale nuclear plants. Dutton confirmed on Wednesday that the Coalition had not finalised which reactors would be used. 'We will take advice from the experts on what is the best fit for those seven sites,' he said. Littleproud told the National Press Club on April 24 that he had promised to farmers 'there is nothing extra coming out of the consumptive pool' of water available to irrigators, and models would be selected based on their water consumption. 'There are other technologies in terms of dry cooling,' he said. O'Brien in February said, 'the nuclear technology for Australia is yet to be selected'.
West Australian
30-04-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Federal election 2025: Liberals vow $40b savings in statement ahead of release of the party's costings
A Liberal Government would undertake 'responsible' budget repair, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor will announce on Thursday, vowing to cut forecast national debt by $40 billion over the next four years. In a statement ahead of the release of the party's election costings on Thursday, Mr Taylor said Labor had failed to rein in spending and prepare for leaner economic times, flagging the Coalition's savings. As part of the savings, the Coalition has already committed to cutting $86 billion in spending, including the $20b Rewiring the Nation Fund and the $10b Housing Australia Future Fund. The release of the cost of the Coalition's promises comes after the Federal Budget in March revealed a decade of forecast deficits, fuelled by Labor's additional $70b in new spending over the forward estimates. The budget predicted an underlying deficit of $42.1 billion next year, with Federal debt rising above $1 trillion in the 2025-26 financial year, before hitting a new high of $1.2b by June 2029. Mr Taylor said Labor had delivered the 'longest per-capita recession on record' on top of the biggest collapse in living standards in the developed world. 'That's not bad luck, that's bad management,' he said. 'After raking in almost $400 billion in extra revenue, Labor chose to splurge instead of save, leaving Australians more exposed to the next economic shock.' 'We will rebuild the nation's fiscal buffers, reduce debt, and begin budget repair because that's what economic responsibility looks like.' Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume said getting Australia back on track required 'tough choices and real leadership'. 'Labor's decade of deficits is a warning sign — they've ignored the IMF and credit agencies and are gambling with Australia's AAA credit rating. This won't just affect business but would impact all Australians,' she said. 'We can't afford more of Labor's reckless spending. The Coalition will restore discipline, reduce debt, and deliver cost-of-living relief that doesn't fuel inflation.' Earlier this week, international rating agency S&P Global warned Australia's AAA rating could be under threat as parties wrack up election commitments pile up. In a report titled 'Hey Big Spender', S&P warned the nation's top tier rating could be jeopardised if election promises resulted in 'larger structural deficits, and debt and interest expenses rising more than we expect'. S&P raised concern with the continued use of so-called 'off budget' spending, such as the National Broadband Network, Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Snowy Hydro, and Housing Australia. Labor's decision to wipe $16b from student HECS debt also falls into the category.
