Angus Taylor’s list of 34 economic policies: mental health sessions, vaping regulation

Angus Taylor’s claim to have unveiled 34 economic polices in this term of parliament extends to taxpayer-funded mental health sessions, regulating vaping, increasing student visa costs, investing in ovarian cancer research and reducing the refugee intake.

Opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

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Angus Taylor’s claim to have unveiled 34 economic polices in this term of parliament extends to taxpayer-funded mental health sessions, regulating vaping, increasing student visa fees, investing in ovarian cancer research and reducing the refugee intake.

The list released by the office of the opposition Treasury spokesman has been panned by economists as evidence there has been a lack of credible policies unveiled by the Coalition.

With The Australian revealing growing discontent within Coalition ranks about its lacklustre economic agenda, Mr Taylor’s office has distributed a list of the opposition’s economic policies while declaring there would be “more to come”.

Included in the list is Peter Dutton’s vow to restore the Covid-era policy of 20 Medicare-funded mental health sessions per year, as well as the Coalition’s vow to reform regulations on vaping.

It also includes a policy to spend $9m reviewing women-specific health items on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and investing in the Ovarian Cancer Australia charity.

Other policies on the list of economic policies are: incentives for training GPs; allowing first-home buyers and separated women to access superannuation for housing; restoring the cashless debit card trial; establishing a Housing Infrastructure Program to build homes; speeding up gas approvals; repealing the nuclear energy moratorium, and; capping the number of foreign students at metropolitan universities.

The list also includes the Coalition’s vow to implement divestiture powers targeting the supermarket sector but mentions nothing about Mr Dutton flagging the same approach for insurers.

There is nothing on the list about tax or spending cuts, amid concerns from Coalition MPs that there will be no relief for workers offered ahead of the election.

The Australian understands similar lists have been disseminated to a number of industry stakeholders and economic experts, with one recipient describing the document as the “weakest policy offering from an opposition in living memory”.

Responding to concerns from Coalition MPs on Thursday, Mr Dutton said “we’ve got a lot of policy out there at the moment”.

“We’ve got a $5bn housing infrastructure program, which is going to create 500,000 new homes,” he told 2GB radio.

“We’re going to cut immigration because Labor’s brought in a million people over two years and that has created the housing crisis.

“There’s an energy crisis that Labor’s created through Chris Bowen’s complete ineptitude, and that includes nuclear. That will bring power prices down, along with gas in the medium and longer term.

“We have been working day and night on policy over the last 2½ years and any suggestion a) that we haven’t got policy out there as I just pointed out is a complete nonsense, and b) that we don’t have policy coming is an equal fiction.”

Mr Dutton was again noncommittal over whether he would offer tax cuts for workers, signalling it may be a decision for after the election if the Coalition wins.

“It will depend on how much money is in the bank,” he said.

“We’ll make the decision that is right for our country at the time, knowing how much money we have in the bank and whether we want to pay down debt, or whether we want to put money into tax cuts or provide support through other policy, we’ll announce that in due course.”

George Washington University assistant economics professor Steve Hamilton said he was “disappointed” by the economic policy list distributed by the Coalition.

“This list of policy commitments doesn’t measure up to the significant challenges Australia faces and is disturbingly focused in many areas on re-regulating the Australian economy,” he said. “That strikes me as the opposite of economic reform.

“When I read through this list, it doesn’t scream Liberal policies, it doesn’t scream economic freedom, it doesn’t scream ‘remove the shackles on the Australian economy’.

“It screams ‘let’s regulate a whole bunch of things’.”

UNSW economics professor Richard Holden labelled the document disseminated by Mr Taylor’s office as a “scattergun list” devoid of any broader economic reform agenda.

“There’s zero narrative and there’s about to be an election campaign, so there better be a narrative sooner rather than later,” Professor Holden said.

“If somebody said: ‘Hey ChatGPT, make a list of every random policy announcement that’s come out of the Coalition in the last 18 months’, it could produce that.

“I was a bit taken aback by that aspect of it.”

Professor Holden noted there were “some good ideas” on the list, citing Mr Taylor’s proposed fiscal rules, but noted it also included some “wacky things”, including the Coalition’s plan to exempt small-business meal and entertainment expenses from fringe benefits tax.

“It suggests that policy debate, and particularly economic policy debate, is incredibly piecemeal and by issue, rather than driven by a top-down narrative,” he said.

“I think that’s a problem.”

Scepticism of the Coalition’s policy offering was shared by Peter Tulip, chief economist at the Centre for Independent Studies, a centre-right think tank.

Dr Tulip was dubious that a number of items on the list constituted economic policy, nominating regulation of vaping and restoring the trials of the cashless debit card.

“I’ve not heard any big, major policies from the federal opposition on economic policy,” Dr Tulip said.

“In fairness to the opposition, nor has the government been advancing serious policies, with the exception of the reform to the Reserve Bank.”

Jim Chalmers said Mr Taylor has “had three years and still doesn’t have any credible, costed or coherent economic policies”.

“Not even his own colleagues take him seriously,” the Treasurer said.