Treasurers’ debate: The unspoken question over Labor’s grand vision

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, right, and Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen, left, during the treasurer's debate at the National Press Club today. Picture: Rohan Thomson/AAP

Confronted with the reality of the difficulty of Labor implementing the most radical tax and economic changes in decades, Chris Bowen has been forced to concede that a Shorten government will have to rely on: “mandate and moral authority” in the Senate.

The shadow Treasurer’s concession is the great unspoken question about Labor’s grand vision, $387 billion in new taxes, government intervention into wages, billions in spending and even constitutional change — can this radical agenda pass the Senate in the form being put

to the Australian people?

And, if not, what does the loss of billions in proposed tax revenue mean to Labor’s grand agenda and the cost to the economy?

As a calm, confident and composed alternative Treasurer Bowen performed well, ran Labor’s political lines strongly on equity and redistribution of wealth strongly and offered big boosts in spending to health, education, Medicare and, of course, wages.

He made no mistakes and was friendly and non-threatening, but the cloth Bowen had to work with made it impossible to produce a new suit to cover Labor’s bare patches.

The key was his admission that faced with a Senate — which he conceded could involve hostile Senators from Clive Palmer — Labor could only cite the “mandate” for its long-held policies on retirees tax, negative gearing and industrial relations and while “respectful” would

use its moral authority on the Senate.

Mandate is a thing of the past — Labor has repeatedly opposed Coalition policies in the Senate which have gone to as many elections — and moral authority evaporates rapidly when dealing with the Greens who are demanding even more radical policies and independents with no respect for the major parties.

This is Labor’s so far hidden challenges — how does it deliver such a radical policy through the Senate, how does it pay for changes and what promises will be broken?

Bowen worked well with what he had promoting equity and seeking to eliminate the working poor, while pinning Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison on why they won’t admit there are $77 billion in tax cuts for higher income earners.

The Treasurer was likewise calm and confident and prepared to prosecute the Government’s austere message of economic management being necessary in the face of headwinds from the global economy.

Frydenberg was given a victory in a tight and substantial debate by reason of being able to query Labor’s promises and projections and sticking to a better script than Bowen had to work from.