Opinion: Is there meat on either side of the bone?

THE Coalition tax plan might not have an investment payday anything like that being promised and Labor’s plan might not do anything beyond what governments do anyway.

IF THIS is an election about not much – some say it’s a Seinfeld poll – then how do we explain the desperate need for an economic plan at the very heart of the contest.

Malcolm Turnbull hasn’t stopped talking about his plan, which is wrapped in the slogan “jobs and growth”, a catch-all phrase that adapts to tax cuts, innovation, medical research, defence programs, work schemes for the young jobless and infrastructure.

Bill Shorten’s economic message is, as they say, nuanced because it leverages investment in health and education into a growing economy. This is a more complex idea to get across because people don’t necessarily see a single line between the two.

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Where Shorten’s pitch does work in the loungerooms and the coffee shops is that he’s going to do something about the cost of living and provide enough investment in things such as education to improve the chances of young people getting ahead in life.

However, is there any “there” there? Is there any meat on the bone from either side?

Turnbull’s tax cut, which underpins his economic plan, has a 10-year horizon and comes in bit by bit, with at least contestable impact.

The economic pay-off is supposed to be greater investment but, because of Australia’s unique dividend imputation system – introduced by Paul Keating a quarter of a century ago – the real benefit comes not from cutting corporate taxes but personal taxes.

The problem here is that cutting personal taxes is way too expensive – so expensive that Labor is going into the election actually promising to increase the top marginal rate through its plan to make the 2 per cent “budget repair levy” permanent.

The other big part of the Labor tax plan is that they match the first tranche of the Coalition’s company tax cut – the fall from 28.5 per cent to 27.5 per cent for companies with a turnover of less than $2 million.

So the Coalition plan might not actually have an investment payday anything like that being promised and the Labor plan might not do anything beyond what governments do anyway – provide money for schools and help with the cost of visiting a GP.

So it does look like the need for an economic plan is being met by constructing one that has a shape but no content.

It could be the perfect Hollowmen election, not the T.S Eliot type but one from Working Dog Productions.

Dennis Atkins is The Courier-Mail’s national affairs editor

Originally published as Opinion: Is there meat on either side of the bone?