Voters are being ripped off by election campaign lite

Throughout the Albanese government’s first term the criticism has been that Labor has dialled back the reform clock to a time before the Hawke and Keating policies that helped set up the nation for three decades of prosperity. Top of the list has been workplace and economic policies that have delivered to trade unions but stifled productivity, lifted debt and made the inflation challenge more difficult.

The job of the Coalition in opposition is to convince voters that a return to big government is the wrong path. The time away from the Treasury benches should be spent rigorously developing the policies necessary to course correct. Peter Dutton has achieved a feat in being in a position to seriously challenge the Albanese government’s hold on power after one term. But the Opposition Leader will now be judged on how well he has been able to develop policies in the critical areas that matter. These include energy, industrial relations, budget management and defence. As things stand, there is a lot of work still to be done. The latest poll results show Mr Dutton has been able to get the attention of voters but has yet to convince them he can do things better than Labor.

Polling continues to highlight the real potential for a minority government compromised by the extreme positions of the Greens and niche-interest independents. What has been lacking from the major parties is any sense of true purpose to deal with the big issues of national concern: curbing runaway government spending; securing reliable and affordable energy; reforming taxation in a way that tackles bracket creep, and; acting in a responsible way regarding national defence.

Debate must broaden out from the economic wasteland of giveaways and profligate spending, and sunny resignation to the structural deficit position the federal budget is now in. Anthony Albanese has shown no interest in tackling the hard parts of government and is promising more of the same. Mr Dutton has a responsibility to do better, but what has been on offer during the first week of the election campaign has been a procession of straw-man political eruptions dressed up as policy debate.

Labor’s deferred tax cut costs a lot of money to deliver very little and quickly will be swallowed up by bracket creep. Rather than economic reform, the opposition’s temporary fuel excise reduction is a bribe to voters in the sort of seats it wants to win. The Prime Minister’s tough talk on supermarkets is ludicrous given the findings of an Australian Competition & Consumer Commission inquiry that found there was no price gouging taking place. Mr Albanese’s ruminations about the need for four-year terms is galling given that longevity is no substitute for substance. The Albanese government must wear its responsibility for its first-term policies to expand the public service, increase the compliance burden and grind down the private sector with workplace intrusions and union interference. It must be held to account for the way it cavalierly has discarded the modelling on which its hugely expensive and fraught energy transition has been based. It brings into question the entirety of the net-zero transition and the quality of the justifications used to support it.

The Coalition has been quick to identify the shortcomings in Labor’s “renewable energy only” approach but Mr Dutton must convince voters that his policy development during three years in opposition has been deeper than slogans and wishful thinking. Certainly he deserves credit for holding together a fractured Liberal Party and putting it in a competitive position, yet electoral success requires more than not spooking the internal horses.

Mr Dutton must demonstrate that he has a team able to step up and deal with the failings of the current government and offer better solutions. This does not involve mirroring the more extreme positions being taken elsewhere or indulging in the sort of culture war campaign that many on his side of politics would find emotionally satisfying. The challenge is to secure Australia’s place in the world with policies that can build the economy and allow for the investments necessary in times of global uncertainty.

Mr Dutton is correct that energy policy is a linchpin around which nearly all aspects of the economy and modern life rotate. The agenda to transition to nuclear energy makes sense given it is where much of the rest of the world is heading. But selling the idea politically and delivering it practically require detail that has not been forthcoming to date. Similarly, the gas reservation policy that formed a key part of Mr Dutton’s budget-in-reply speech resonates easily with common sense but is much more complex in practice. Mr Dutton quickly must demonstrate he has done the work and has the support of industry to implement it.

What is clear from the results of Newspoll is that Mr Dutton has not been able to easily capture the electorate with the sort of enthusiasm for change that usually accompanies a change in government. This includes the enduring success of John Howard and high level of support for change garnered by Kevin Rudd in 2007 or Tony Abbott in 2013. Mr Dutton is fortunate that Mr Albanese limped into office with a low percentage of the vote but this does not guarantee an easy return to the Treasury benches for the Coalition.

A failure on the part of the Coalition to do the work and lift its game during the election campaign could result in a minority government that will make the nation’s economic and cultural repair job only that much more difficult in the future.