Peter Dutton has stridently defended the Coalition’s record of economic management, accused Anthony Albanese of breaking faith with Australians and sought to establish some clear markers based on Liberal values for the long road ahead in restoring electoral support.
The Opposition Leader has also used the 30 minutes allotted in his budget-in-reply to reveal more of himself beyond the rigid caricature carved out from his days as defence and home affairs minister. Dutton wasn’t expected to deliver a speech heavily populated with new policy, considering the Coalition lost government only six months ago.
Some will criticise him for this.
Instead, he has sought to plant some seeds for the broader policy direction based on some guiding principles and values under his leadership. Dutton has sought to put some meat on the bones of a political strategy that is focused on the family budget while seeking to exploit Labor’s past weakness when it comes to perceptions of its record on economic management. He is also preparing for a renewed fight over energy and climate policy, at a time of skyrocketing prices.
In a broad attack on Jim Chalmers’ budget, he sought to blame Labor for the looming energy crisis. He pointed out under previous Labor governments, power prices rose on average by 12.9 per cent a year, whereas over the nine years of Coalition government, they rose on average by 0.3 per cent a year.
“When the Prime Minister says that the sun and wind are free energy sources, your power bill tells a different story,” Dutton said. “‘Firming-up’ means using coal, gas, hydro, hydrogen, nuclear or batteries as an energy source or to store power when renewables aren’t feeding the system. That is a scientific reality.”
Dutton has also eyed an opportunity left open by the absence of a strategic plan by the Albanese government to address the problems that the budget highlighted.
It was thanks to the Coalition government’s record, he claimed, that the underlying fundamentals of the Australian economy Labor inherited were relatively strong.
“Labor’s budget was a missed opportunity to help you at a time when you need help,” Dutton said. “It didn’t address our economic challenges or inspire confidence.
“It’s a budget which breaks promises, rather than keeps them … A budget which weakens Australia’s financial position, rather than strengthens it … And a budget which adds to, rather than alleviates, your cost-of-living pressures.”
But Dutton also identified policy decisions of the Labor government that he supported, commending the extension of childcare subsidies, cheaper medicines, initiatives to combat domestic violence and support for veterans.
He touched on national security, pensioners and veterans, families, women and children and industrial relations.
It was a broad sweep of the values that Dutton intends to build the party’s policy platform.
He flagged new policy areas, including online safety and domestic violence. He is also spoiling for a fight over education, which Dutton acknowledges was a critical values-based policy area that the Coalition failed to prosecute in its last term in office.
“ … the system has allowed ideologically driven advocates too much influence over what is taught to our children,” Dutton said.
“Teaching a sanitised and selective version of history and the arts – and radical gender theory – is not in our children’s best interests.”
The Liberal leader has identified superannuation as a key area of difference, pledging to continue the policy of access to super for housing. “Your super is your money,” he said.
And on housing, he highlighted the ideological divide between the Coalition and Labor, accusing Albanese of a Kevin Rudd-esque approach to delivery of affordable housing that could never be delivered.
Dutton clearly realised that he needed to go beyond just a critique of Labor’s budget and the crises ahead, lest he give the impression of a Coalition drifting in opposition.
He has addressed this by seeking to establish some authority over policy territory that he believes plays to the Coalition’s strengths.
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