If there is one constant in Australian fiscal affairs, it is that the Victorian Labor government will spend excessively, mismanage major projects, swell the public service and inflate the state’s debt.
Labor bestows favours on those it deems more morally deserving and penalises everyone else. This has nothing to do with genuine compassion or caring for the vulnerable.
Far from signalling the death-knell of the sensible right in Australia, the Coalition’s catastrophic defeat represents an opportunity for renewal.
You have to give it to the geniuses advising Peter Dutton in this campaign. In their desperation to minimise any political differences with Labor, they have ignored a tax policy blunder from their opponents.
If Dutton wants to indulge in ‘aspirational’ policy pledges, he should say he wants to get rid of the 37 per cent income tax bracket. Dutton won the respect of many Australians for the principled stand he took on the voice and nuclear power.
Albanese’s campaign is based on two big lies: one, that wind and solar are the cheapest forms of energy. And two, that Dutton plans to end Medicare.
Tweedledum’s $14 a week or Tweedledee’s $10 a week. Take your pick. But we deserve better than this.
Where Paul Keating lowered the top tax rate from 60 to 49 per cent in 1985, Jim Chalmers takes two percentage points off the bottom rate – a comparison that points to the gulf in class between the two.
While Jim Chalmers will persist with complete denial and reckless spending in Tuesday’s budget, Peter Dutton has the chance to respond with bold policies. These are the moves he should make.
Our ever-rising electricity prices are a direct and entirely foreseeable result of the two major parties’ commitment to achieve net-zero emissions.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/david-pearl