Coalition unveils campaign materials on government spending

The Coalition is launching a key pillar of its election campaign that will seek to target Labor over what the opposition claims has been wasteful spending.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in August met with local shop owners in Mitchelton in Brisbane. Picture: Tertius Pickard / NewsWire

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The Coalition is launching a key pillar of its election campaign that will seek to target Labor over what the opposition claims has been wasteful spending on all the “wrong priorities” during a cost-of-living crisis, unveiling a public online repository of examples of inappropriate government spending that “Australian families are paying the price for”.

The new website, seen by The Australian ahead of its launch, features dozens of examples of ministers and Labor-linked officials splashing out on meals and events, including revelations last week that former Labor leader turned US ambassador Kevin Rudd hosted a $70,000 party at the embassy.

The website also seeks to link Labor to spending by government departments, such as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spending $20,000 in taxpayer funds for didgeridoo performances in India or the inappropriate allocation of NDIS funding to shonky providers spending the money on holidays and luxury cars.

Labor’s $172m advertising spend to spruik government initiatives such as the new vehicle efficiency standard is featured on the site, as is the $24bn spend over four years on an additional 36,000 public servants that Peter Dutton lashed in his budget reply speech earlier this year.

“Under Labor, you always pay more”, the website’s title reads.

“Australian families are paying the price for Labor’s bad decisions and wrong priorities.”

Screengrabs from the new Coalition website

Recent polls show rising concern over the cost-of-living crisis has led to a drop in the Prime Minister’s popularity and the growing potential for the Coalition to gain more seats than Labor in the lower house and form minority government.

Former Labor strategist and pollster Kos Samaras said there would be an element of the federal Liberal campaign on government waste “that definitely will resonate”.

“There is a significant number of Australians (who) think that governments right now haven’t got their priorities right.”

Screengrabs from the new Coalition website.

Liberal sources said the opposition would in coming months seek to capitalise on how voters weren’t “feeling the largesse that government purse strings seem to be at the moment”.

“Peter (Dutton) will always refer to the Labor government’s taxing and spending and not managing the economy and that dovetails in with the No.1 issue which comes up in all the polling, which is cost of living, cost of living, cost of living,” one senior ­Coalition source said.

Opposition government waste spokesman James Stevens said Labor had “shown just how out of touch it is”.

“Australians are doing it tough and cutting back their household budgets during this cost-of-living crisis. The last thing they want to see is the government wasting their hard-earned tax dollars on the wrong priorities,” he said.

“Every dollar the government spends comes out of the pockets of everyday Australians. That money should only be spent on delivering government services in the most efficient way possible.“

In the face of criticism from the Coalition over government spending, Labor sources said the party would be honing in on the opposition’s uncosted policies and the need for billions of dollars to prop up its nuclear energy plan.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday spruiked his government’s economic record, pointing to the halving of inflation “while dealing with cost-of-living pressures”, creating a million jobs and handing down two surpluses.

“The number of surpluses under the former government (was) zero,” he said.