Federal election 2022: Coalition and Labor policies explained
With only days until Saturday’s election, here is a comparison of the major election promises from the Morrison government and Labor.
After six weeks of campaigning, here is a comparison of some of the major election policy promises by the Coalition and Labor.
HEALTH
Coalition
A re-elected government has committed to lower the cost of drugs on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme by $10 per script. The policy starts in 2023, and is expected to cost $560m over the four-year budget forward estimates.
Scott Morrison has pledged to spend $150m on a regional health package to get more doctors outside the big cities.
The Coalition will expand eligibility for continuous glucose monitoring devices to every Australian with type 1 diabetes, starting from July of this year and at a cost of $273m. The government says this policy will provide about 130,000 diabetes sufferers with a potentially lifesaving CGM device, which could cost up to $5,000 per year without subsidy.
The government has also pledged to establish two comprehensive cancer treatment centres, one in Adelaide, and one in a yet-to-be-determined location in Queensland (likely Brisbane). These centres are expected to cost $458m over the four-year forward estimates.
Labor
Anthony Albanese’s flagship policy in health was only announced the weekend before the election: a $750m funding boost for Medicare to give patients greater access to GPs. A further $220m will be spent through a grants program to help GPs upgrade their practices, helping to fund IT system upgrades and new equipment.
Labor has also committed to trial 50 Medicare urgent care clinics to take the pressure off hospitals’ overloaded emergency departments, at a cost of $135m. The clinics will bulk bill and be staffed by doctors and nurses who will treat the non life-threatening injuries – broken bones and such – which clog up emergency waiting rooms. Labor says the clinics will be established across the country according to the greatest need, although there have already been reports of candidates in marginal electorates promising a clinic would be established in their area. A key challenge will be finding the nurses and doctors to staff the clinics.
The Opposition immediately committed to matching a number of Coalition promises. These included a larger $12.50 reduction in the PBS co-payment, which would cost close to $700m. Labor has promised to also match the glucose monitoring device subsidies, the rural doctors scheme and the Adelaide cancer centre.
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NDIS
Both sides have committed to fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the annual cost of which is forecast to double to $59bn by the end of the decade.
Beyond that, the only election commitment is Labor’s promise to launch a sweeping review of the scheme to make it more efficient and effective.
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AGED CARE
The 2018 Royal Commission “painted a gloomy picture” of the aged care sector, in which “many of the people and institutions in the aged care sector want to deliver the best possible care to older people, but are overwhelmed, underfunded or out of their depth”.
Since then, stories of neglect and mistreatment of aged care residents have underlined the challenge facing policymakers.
Coalition
The Coalition has not committed to any major aged care policies during this election, beyond what it has already budgeted.
Labor
Anthony Albanese has pledged to take “practical measures” to improve the experience of aged care residents. These promises include a pledge to require every facility to have registered nurses on site around the clock, to get more carers and pay them substantially more – as much as 25 per cent more – and to improve the quality of care.
Labor has provided a rough $2.5bn price tag for its initiatives, not including the cost of paying aged care staff higher wages (the government subsidises the vast majority of the aged care sector).
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OLDER AUSTRALIANS
Coalition
Scott Morrison has promised a re-elected government would expand access to the seniors health card, increasing the income threshold for singles from $57,761 to about $90,000, and from $92,416 to $144,000 for couples. This will from July 1 allow 50,000 more people to access cheaper medications and services, the government says, at a cost of $70m over four years.
The government has also pledged to offer older Australians new financial incentives to downsize, with the aim of freeing up more family homes in a tight property market. People aged over 55 years will be able to invest up to $300,000 from the sale of their home into their super accounts without penalty.
Pensioners will get a further incentive to sell via a change to the rules that will exempt the proceeds of a home sale from the assets test for two years instead of one, at a cost of $62m over four years.
Labor
The Opposition has promised to match these commitments.
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CHILD CARE
Coalition
The government is not going to the polls with new commitments, although from March 7 it increased the child care subsidy for families with two or more children, and removed the annual subsidy cap – making childcare much cheaper and removing work disincentives for families earning over $190,000.
The cost of the government’s child care changes is $1.7bn over four years.
Labor
One of Anthony Albanese’s flagship policies is a plan to lift the maximum child care subsidy rate to 90 per cent for the first child in care – from 83 per cent now – and increase the subsidy rates for every family household with one child in care and earning less than under $530,000.
Families with two or more children will continue to receive the higher subsidy rate for second and subsequent children
The childcare commitments are yet to be formally costed, but the Opposition says it will invest approximately $5.4 billion to make child care cheaper, starting from July 2023.
Labor says 96 per cent of families will be better off under their scheme, and that none would be worse off.
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CLIMATE AND ENERGY TRANSITION
Coalition
The government goes into the election with its existing commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with a plan “focused on technologies and not taxes”.
The Coalition has targeted 26-28 per cent emissions reduction by 2030, but has projected a 35 per cent reduction by the end of the decade.
Scott Morrison has announced $152m for new hydrogen hubs in Townsville, and in NSW’s Hunter Region. These will complement existing plans for hubs in Perth and Gladstone.
Labor
The Opposition has the same net zero by 2050 plan, but a more ambitious target of reducing the nation’s carbon emissions by 43 per cent by 2030.
The Opposition has promised a “Powering Australia” plan, which it says will cut power bills and emissions by boosting renewable energy. The cornerstone of the plan is a promise to spend $20bn to rebuild and modernise the national electricity grid.
Labor pledges to commit $200m to install 400 community batteries, which will provide storage for up to 100,000 households with solar power but no batteries.
To encourage take-up of electric vehicles, Labor will spend $39.3m – matched by the NRMA – to build 117 fast charging stations on highways across Australia.
Labor, if elected, will also make some electric vehicles cheaper by exempting some electric cars from the 5 per cent import tariff, and removing fringe benefits tax on EVs provided through work for private use.
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HOUSING
Coalition
Housing affordability has become a major issue during this election campaign, after property prices boomed by 26 per cent through the pandemic.
A re-elected Coalition will increase the number of home loan guarantees for first-home buyers from 10,000 a year to 35,000, with a further 10,000 low-deposit guarantees for first-home buyers for newly built properties in the regions.
Under this popular policy, taxpayers will guarantee up to 15 per cent of an eligible first homebuyer‘s home loan, helping them own a property with a deposit of as little of 5 per cent while avoiding paying tens of thousands of dollars in lender’s mortgage insurance.
The property price caps will also be increased.
The number of single-parent families per year able to access a home loan guarantee of up to 18 per cent will be expanded to 5000.
While the above has bipartisan support, more contested is the government’s promise to let Australians withdraw as much as $50,000 from their superannuation accounts – or 40 per cent of the total balance – to help buy a first home. The Super Home Buyer scheme will be open to all would-be property owners, regardless of income. Buyers who take advantage of the scheme on the sale of the property would then need to put the amount they withdrew back into their retirement savings, including a proportionate capital gain (or loss).
Labor
Labor will match the Coalition’s expanded home loan guarantees.
The major departure is that an elected Labor government would contribute up to 40 per cent of the cost of a home via its Help to Buy shared ownership policy.
The scheme would help up to 10,000 lower income Australians buy their first homes with deposits of as little as 2 per cent of the property price. The Commonwealth would be part-owner of the home, reducing the price of an existing dwelling by 30 per cent, and 40 per cent for a newly built home.
Sharing ownership of your home comes with some strings: the household would need to begin paying back the government if their incomes pass the $90,000 individual or $120,000 household income threshold, and taxpayers would need to be repaid their share plus capital gains once the property is sold.
Labor will also create a $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund, with the investment returns from this fund used to build 30,000 new social and affordable housing properties in its first five years.
The Opposition would also establish a National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, to help the Commonwealth work with states and territories to, among other things, set targets around land supply releases.
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DEFENCE
Coalition
The government is investing $270bn in military hardware, with a number of major announcements which have already been budgeted for.
The only new commitment to emerge in this election is a further $108.5m for its Defence Industry Pathways Program for school leavers, to develop a pipeline of workers to work in the defence industry.
Labor
The Opposition has supported the boosted national security spending, and the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines from the US.
Labor has, however, also pledged to increase foreign aid to Pacific island countries and East Timor by $525m over four years. That announcement came in the wake of the Solomon Islands signing a security agreement with China.
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TAXES
Coalition
The government carries into the election its existing commitments to further reduce income tax via the third and final stage of its legislated tax reforms, due to start from mid-2024. The budget also included a $420 increase in the final low-and-middle income tax offset. Otherwise, there are no new tax commitments during this campaign.
Labor
Anthony Albanese has promised to support the $420 boost to the low and middle-income tax offset, and the massive stage three tax cuts.
Labor says it will claw back $1.9bn over four years from multinational companies by making changes to how deductions for debt are structured (which it says will raise $1.45bn), and more restrictions on the use of tax havens.
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EDUCATION
Coalition
The Morrison government is investing $7.8bn in this financial year to keeping apprentices and trainees in jobs via wage subsidies, and to assist Australians gain new skills through vocational education and training.
On top of these major existing funding commitments, the only pledge has been $5m to develop a technology skills passport.
Labor
Anthony Albanese has committed to a $1.2bn Future Made in Australia Skills Plan, which includes 465,00 fee-free TAFE places and $482m for up to 20,000 new university places. Labor will invest $100m to support 10,000 “new energy” apprenticeships, and a further $10m to help skill up workers to meet the needs of new energy industries.
If elected, Labor will also deliver $440 million to schools for better ventilation, building upgrades, and mental health support, and another $147m over four years to lift teaching standards, including a goal of doubling the number of high achieving students to complete education degrees.