Joe Hildebrand: Albanese and Dutton spending big to win over voters

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton broke out the national credit card today and went on a spending spree. The only question is, will it work, asks Joe Hildebrand.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to stand in one of those game show capsules being showered by money then today is really your day.

Both parties broke out the national credit card at their campaign launches today and started spending like Imelda Marcos in a shoe store.

Entering to the strains of Prince and the Power Generation’s “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” — well, not really, but he should have — Peter Dutton dropped a cool $10 billion on a one-off tax cashback of up to $1200 at the Coalition campaign launch in Western Sydney.

Meanwhile Anthony Albanese was even further west of the CBD — approximately 3000km further in fact — in a small outer suburb called “Perth”.

Anthony Albanese launches Labor’s election campaign in Perth. Picture: Jason Edwards

Such is the strangeness of Australian politics these days that WA is now a stronghold for Labor that it must defend at all costs to maintain its majority, hence launching its national campaign here for the second election in a row.

As the old song goes, “Thank you Mark McGowan”.

Sadly Marky Mark has now departed but the Funky Bunch still remains and Roger Cook is among the three Labor premiers Albo can smile next to without looking like his toe is stuck in an electricity socket.

Thus it was all smiles when the PM dropped his own $10 billion to unlock 100,000 new homes that will be reserved for first homeowners, plus allowing them to borrow with a five per cent deposit.

And so both sides have adorned their campaigns with more nice round figures than an episode of the Kardashians. Even the faintest fig leaf of fiscal rectitude has now been blown away like game show cash in a vacuum tube.

Peter Dutton after launching the Coalition’s campaign in western Sydney. Picture: Richard Dobson

But far be it from me to moralise about the fate of our children’s future. The only question is, will it work?

Frankly, the $1200 tax cashback is as close to a naked bribe as you will ever see in Australian politics. And, as a result, it just might. A cool grand is a nice little sweetener in a cost-of-living crisis.

But, like the Coalition’s fuel excise cut, that sweetener is just a temporary sugar hit.

Dutton called Albanese’s $5 a week tax cut “insulting” but another thing it is recurring. And over a few years it will add up to much more than the Coalition is giving away — that is unless the Coalition wins and repeals it as they have promised.

Paul McCartney once sang that “money can’t buy me love”.

Today Peter Dutton will try to prove him wrong.

Originally published as Joe Hildebrand: Albanese and Dutton spending big to win over voters