ACoalitiongovernment would drive the budget deeper into deficit over the coming two years, as the shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, insisted her party’s plan to save $17.2bn by slashing the number of Canberra-based public servants by 41,000 through “natural attrition” was achievable.
If returned to power, the Coalition would gut a long list of environment and clean energy programs, including scrapping the Net Zero Economy Agency, reversing Labor’s tax breaks for electric vehicles, and redirecting money slated for the home batteries program.
In an echo of American policy developments since Donald Trump came to power, Australia’s foreign aid budget would be slashed by $813m over four years, excluding assistance in our region.
Allowing vaping products to be sold in supermarkets and convenience stores, and taxing them like cigarettes, would raise $3.6bn over four years.
The Coalition’s list of more than 200 policy costings included tens of millions of dollars to pay for government bodies as part of its nuclear power plan, including $93.7m over four years to create a nuclear energy coordinating authority and national nuclear training facility and fuel laboratory.
With a pledge to lift the moratorium on nuclear power, there would also be $87.5m to build community support for “zero emissions nuclear technology”.
Separate from the costings, a Coalition government would invest $36.4bn to deliver two government-owned power plants by 2035, and a further $118bn out to 2050 to build out a nuclear power industry.
The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, told a press conference “we want to offer Australians a clear choice at this election”.
“A choice between responsible economic management or between Labor’s reckless spending. A choice between lower and simpler and fairer taxes [and] Labor’s ever-increasing tax burdens. A choice between higher living standards and Labor’s lower living standards,” Hume said.
The Coalition’s claim that it will save $17.2bn over four years by slashing the number of public servants in Canberra by 41,000 has come under heavy scrutiny during the campaign, and the shadow finance minister was again forced to defend the target.
She claimed the cuts would come from 110,000 Canberra-based bureaucrats in mid-2024, against Australian Public Service Commission figures showing about 70,000.
“We have worked closely with the PBO on this and our advice is that … a hiring freeze and natural attrition will allow us to achieve the 41,000 reduction in ASL [average staffing level] over five years. That is the most important thing. We aren’t expecting voluntary redundancies.”
Even as Angus Taylor slammed Labor’s “decade of deficits”, he confirmed that the $15.4bn spent on a one-off tax refund and a temporary halving of the petrol excise would sink the nation’s finances further into the red than under Labor over the coming two financial years.
Over the four years, however, the budget would be $13.9bn better off, the costings showed.
“The Coalition has set out a very clear, responsible, credible economic plan to restore our nation’s finances, to strengthen our economy, to tackle inflation, and to get Australia on track,” Taylor said.
Jim Chalmers said there were “at least five substantial holes in the coalition’s costings”.
“They haven’t provided anywhere near enough for their nuclear reactors. They’ve got their numbers wrong on their job cuts in the Australian public service. They’ve got their numbers wrong on their long lunches policy, on their petrol policy and on their mortgage deductibility policy as well,” the treasurer said.