Labor won’t break bank on inflationary election splurge

Anthony Albanese is under pressure to mimic Queensland Labor’s big-spending election promises at the federal election, but Senator Murray Watt insists the government will heed the RBA’s inflation warnings.

Senator Murray Watt, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, has ruled out a pre-election cost-of-living splurge by the federal government. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire

Federal minister Murray Watt has insisted Labor won’t break the bank on big-spending cost-of-living relief ahead of next year’s federal election and is heeding inflation warnings from the Reserve Bank governor.

Speaking at the Queensland Media Club in Brisbane on Tuesday, the Queensland-based Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations also declared Anthony Albanese should not be written off in electorates outside Brisbane, even after former Labor premier Steven Miles’ wipeout in the regions at last month’s state election.

The Prime Minister is under pressure from his own MPs to replicate the Queensland ALP’s populist cash-splashing policies – including cut-price public transport, state-owned bulk-billing GP clinics, and free school lunches – which some credit with stopping a total bloodbath for Labor in the state.

Senator Watt said federal Labor was heeding Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock’s warning of the “inflationary implications” of pre-election promises, and said the government’s energy bill relief had actually driven down inflation.

“We always weigh up – in offering cost-of-living relief – what impact that will have on inflation. And that’s why … we will continue to take responsible, sensible steps to assist cost of living so that we can keep driving inflation down,” he said, adding Mr Miles’s free school lunch policy was “not on the agenda”.

He said federal Labor should not be written off in regional Queensland, despite the government only holding five of the state’s 30 electorates, and none outside the southeast corner.

Senator Watt pointed to the Far North Queensland electorate of Leichhardt, where veteran Liberal MP Warren Entsch is retiring, as a standout chance for a Labor gain.

Former professional basketballer and unionist Matt Smith is the ALP’s candidate.