Leadership crisis: Peter Dutton hits airwaves ahead of second tilt

Peter Dutton’s proposal to cut the GST on electricity bills would cost the states about $31bn in lost revenue over a decade.

Peter Dutton holding a press conference at Parliament House yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith

Peter Dutton’s proposal to cut the GST on electricity bills would cost the states about $31.2 billion in lost revenue over a decade, according to an analysis by the Parliament Budget Office.

The PBO costed the policy option in August 2017 for Liberal Democrat Senator Leyonhjelm, finding the states would lose about $7.3bn over four years to 2020-21, and $31.2bn by 2027-28.

The analysis showed the Commonwealth would save about $1.4bn over a decade from the move, because it would moderate CPI increases which in turn would lower indexed welfare payment rises.

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Mr Dutton this morning started a media campaign to reach out to Australian voters, with migration, energy and fuel prices in his sights. He confirmed he was working the phones ahead of a possible second tilt at Malcolm Turnbull’s job.

In his first radio interview since resigning as home affairs minister after narrowly losing yesterday’s spill, Mr Dutton told Triple M in Melbourne he wants to see the 10 per cent GST on electricity removed for families and pensioners.

“People would feel that impact straight away,” Mr Dutton said.

He also flagged a royal commission on fuel and energy companies. “I just think Australian consumers for way too long have been paying way too much for fuel and electricity,” Mr Dutton said.

“A royal commission has the ability to get to the bottom of what is fundamentally wrong with the system and what could potentially help ease the pressure on families and potentially small business.”

He also pledged to cut Australia’s immigration intake if elected leader. “We have to cut the numbers back (but) I haven’t got a number to give to you today,” Mr Dutton told Melbourne’s 3AW.

He also pledged to funnel savings from dumping the government’s corporate tax policy into cuts for households and small businesses.

Mr Dutton is ramping up his bid to topple Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, hitting the airwaves on Wednesday to pitch his credentials, as the Senate continues to debate the tax cut draft laws.

The former home affairs minister would abandon one of the government’s signature economic policies if it fails in the Senate and he snares the top job. “I don’t think it’s possible for them to go through and in that case I would support that money being applied either to households or a tax cut to small and micro-businesses,” Mr Dutton told 3AW.

The big business tax cut package appears doomed in the Senate, with the government’s plan to carve out the major banks knocked back on Wednesday. The package would cut the company tax rate from 30 to 25 per cent, excluding the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, NAB and Westpac.

The government has been unable to secure crucial crossbench support for the tax cuts, with the bank carve-out amendment defeated 38 votes to 34. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and her colleague Peter Georgiou, Centre Alliance’s two senators and independent Tim Storer voted against the plan.

The controversial package got a surprise reprieve on Tuesday when Senator Hanson missed a vote, allowing the Senate debate to continue into Wednesday. But with Labor, the Greens and key crossbenchers not coming on board, the Turnbull government will be forced to decide whether to persevere with the policy.

Even if the package fails as expected, Senator Cormann hinted the government could take it to an election.

“If this goes down today, there is no doubt that the Australian parliament will have to revisit this before long in order to protect our economic security into the future,” the minister told parliament on Tuesday.

With AAP