Richardson slams Treasury misuse over lunch deduction costings

Phillip Coorey and John Kehoe

Feb 4, 2025 – 10.49am

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Veteran budget economist Chris Richardson has accused the government of weaponising Treasury for political purposes, as he sided with the Coalition’s estimate that its small business tax deduction proposal would cost about $250 million over two years.

As the government used Treasury’s cost estimate of between $1.6 billion and $10 billion a year to ridicule the opposition’s policy as “long lunches for bosses”, the small business lobby warned Labor against falling into the same trap as 2019 when it demonised its members as “the top end of town”.

Phillip Coorey is the political editor based in Canberra. He is a two-time winner of the Paul Lyneham award for press gallery excellence.

John Kehoe is economics editor at Parliament House, Canberra. He writes on economics, politics and business. John was Washington correspondent covering Donald Trump’s first election. He joined the Financial Review in 2008 from Treasury.