The Coalition’s troubles with its free lunch policy expose the lack of experience in Dutton’s team

Then-treasurer Peter Costello (left) and then-Assistant Treasurer Peter Dutton speak to the media during a press conference in Canberra in 2006.

Peter Dutton has a problem – experience, or rather, the lack of it, among his frontbench team.

The Opposition Leader himself has the longest, most impressive political and ministerial experience in the Coalition shadow cabinet as well as a long period of work outside politics.

But, Jim Chalmers’ political hit on Dutton’s proposed tax break for companies over business lunches and demands that the Coalition “come clean” and release the costings of the proposed policy and list where spending cuts are going to be made, demonstrates the Liberal weakness.

On Sunday, feeling a bit of pressure about how a Coalition government would cut spending, reduce waste and rorts, Dutton declared: “many of us have sat around the Expenditure Review Committee”.

“I was Assistant Treasurer to Peter Costello many years ago. We know what we’re doing. We’re able to hit the ground running,” he said on the ABC.

Perhaps sensing a weakness Dutton was glossing over the reality that while his frontbench has much more real-world experience than the Labor ministry there has been a swath cut through the ranks of Liberals with treasury and financial experience.

Dutton was assistant treasurer under John Howard and Peter Costello and the only other frontbenchers with any financial experience on the ERC are Michael Sukkar and Jane Hume.

All three Coalition Treasurers of the past decade – Joe Hockey, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg – are no longer in parliament and Simon Birmingham, a former finance minister, is retiring at the election. Morrison was also a Finance Minister.

Prime Minister John Howard listens to assistant Treasurer Peter Dutton during House of Representatives question time at Parliament House Canberra in 2005.

Former ERC members Malcolm Turnbull, Warren Truss, Mathias Cormann, Christian Porter, Kelly O’Dwyer and Arthur Sinodinos are all gone.

Opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor has long experience in finance before parliament, but was Energy and Industry Minister in government.

Then-Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, then-Minister for Health and Sport Sussan Ley and then-Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton in 2015.

It is clear that Dutton wants to concentrate on national security and the rise of anti-Semitism while Anthony Albanese and the Treasurer are talking about the economy at every opportunity.

At the first Coalition partyroom meeting of the year Dutton said: “The Prime Minister says that essentially families have never had been better off because inflation is off a bit, but all these prices are up. For people in the Jewish community and right across the country now, Australians are watching their Prime Minister, knowing that he’s out of his depth and knowing that he’s not up to the task, particularly in relation to law and order and keeping our country safe”.

Chalmers, who was chief of staff to Treasurer Wayne Swan, has blitzed the Coalition’s policies, challenged Taylor and Dutton to “come clean” and managed to get huge and scary numbers into the debate on the “bosses’ business lunch.

“Peter Dutton wants Australian workers to pay for their bosses’ long lunches, and the bill will run to billions of dollars. We know that now. $1.6 billion a year if only one-eighth of what is eligible is claimed. If everything is claimed it goes to more than $10 billion a year,” he kept repeating after producing “Treasury analysis”.

Angus Taylor. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Chalmers are Albanese are not holding back and targeting what they see as a Coalition weakness on economic management and proposed spending cuts.

Taylor, unable to produce his own costing on the tax break beyond saying it’s “less than $250m”, was reduced to accusing Chalmers – with perfectly reasonable grounds – of “politicising the public service”.

Chalmers’ old experience in rough and tumble econo-politics has managed to get a costing in the public arena for Dutton’s policy of between $1.5bn and $10bn and framed it as class warfare while Albanese has described it as the “sloppiest” policy produced from an Opposition he has ever seen.

Of course, the polls are showing the Coalition is well ahead of the Labor government on economic management but Albanese and Chalmers are going for what they see as inexperience and backing a big scare campaign to turn the tables.