Federal election 2022: Coalition first to put costings up for scrutiny

With the Coalition to today unveil its costings – featuring $1 billion in savings – Anthony Albanese has again refused to rule out running higher deficits.

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese rehydrates during a press conference at Bentley Hospital, in the West Australian electorate of Swan. Picture: Getty Images

Anthony Albanese has refused to rule out running higher deficits than the Coalition, as the federal government moves to release its election costings and ramp up pressure on Labor to reveal the price of its policies.

Josh Frydenberg and Simon Birmingham will get ahead of Labor on Tuesday and unveil the Coalition’s costings. It features a $1bn improvement to the bottom line since the March budget.

The government’s costings include about $1bn in savings through public service efficiency dividends over four years and price tags for 35 Coalition election policies.

With Labor expected to reveal its election costings by Thursday, the government will attack the Opposition Leader for failing to submit his policies for “independent assessment and publication”.

While the Coalition has had 27 of its 35 policies published online by the departments of Treasury and Finance, Mr Albanese said “we will put out all of the Opposition’s costings in the usual way, in the usual time frame”.

“One of the things that we have done this entire election campaign is with each policy we announce what the costings are,” he said. “The idea that we don’t have costings out there is quite frankly absurd.”

ALP sources noted that then-Liberal leader Tony Abbott released the Coalition’s costings two days before the 2013 election.

After The Australian this month revealed Labor could unveil cumulative deficits over the forward estimates up to $10bn more than the Coalition, Mr Albanese on Monday dodged three questions on whether the budget would go further into debt over the short-term under his policies.

Government policies already published by Treasury include the super homebuyer scheme and downsizer contributions, Queensland cancer centre, technology skills passport, regional health package, freezing deeming rates for two years, reducing the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payment, and increasing the seniors health card threshold.

The Australian understands Labor has held back its costings to avoid a repeat of the 2019 election campaign, when Bill Shorten released them early and came under attack from the Coalition.

Ahead of the Australian Bureau of Statistics this week updating wages and unem­ployment data, the Treasurer said “our policy costings are publicly available; Labor’s are not”.

“What does Anthony Albanese have to hide? We have submitted 35 policies for costings yet Labor has submitted none,” he said.

“Labor can’t manage money and to avoid proper scrutiny they have not submitted their costings for independent verification and publication during the campaign.

“The reality is the Labor Party have not put forward their policies for costing because we know they cannot manage money.”

Opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers last month released a 13-page economic plan and budget strategy, outlining almost $5bn in budget improvements and plans to spend $500m beefing up the public service. The ALP’s projected savings do not cover the cost of Mr Albanese’s $5.4bn cheaper childcare plan.

Labor figures have told The Australian any deficit increase would be small, given the March budget forecast $225bn of deficits over the forward estimates under the Coalition.

Mr Albanese has also flagged the potential for extra savings from an investigation into government “waste and rorts”.

In addition to Labor’s spending commitments, the ALP has also matched more than 80 per cent of the Coalition’s $1.6bn worth of policy promises made since the start of the campaign.

Data from the government shows Labor has matched 13 of 28 policies released since the election was called on April 10, equating to $1.3bn of the Liberal’s $1.6bn in policy commitments.

With Australia’s debt bill on track to hit over $1 trillion and Labor attempting to show fiscal restraint after Mr Shorten’s high-taxing, big-spending agenda was rejected in 2019, Mr Albanese defended his economic plan.

“What we will have is a fiscally responsible policy.” he said. “You can’t say, on the one hand, Labor isn’t announcing enough expenditure ... and on the other hand say that we’re not being fiscally responsible, because we are. Everything we are investing in is about boosting productivity.”

Framing the Coalition as being more committed to fiscal discipline and spending restraint, Senator Birmingham said Saturday’s election provides “a clear choice in economic management, with real consequences for Australia”.

“It is a contest between a government that is building a strong economy and a stronger future, and a Labor Party that would weaken our economy,” he said.

“You only have to look back to the first week of the election campaign to see that Anthony Albanese is not up to the job of being prime minister.

“Mr Albanese showed he doesn’t understand the economy by not knowing the unemployment rate or the official cash rate.”

Senator Birmingham said “Mr Albanese lacks the fundamental knowledge required to run the 13th largest economy on the planet. Labor always wanted to spend more during Covid and now they have accumulated $437bn of unaffordable spending pressures.”