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Good morning,
Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started this morning.
The countdown continues with just ten days to go of the campaign – although for many of you it might feel even shorter if you’re preparing to vote early.
And the campaign is back in force, after a momentary pause during the day yesterday, following the dead of Pope Francis. All barbs were out last night during the leaders debate, which you can read about here.
This morning’s big announcement is the Coalition’s promise to spend $21bn extra on defence, and we’re already seeing plenty of reaction to it. We’ll bring all that to you as it comes in.
And here are the five key takeaways from the debate, one of which being “do we really need another one on Sunday?”
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The Coalition’s election commitments now total more than $50bn – not including the new defence announcement, according to Labor analysis which it is using to pressure Peter Dutton to reveal his own numbers as the 3 May poll fast approaches.
With just 10 days left in the election campaign, neither Labor or the Coalition have released their election costings, which would detail the impact of their commitments - including any proposed cuts - to the budget bottom line.
Labor will on Wednesday release its own analysis of the Coalition’s election promises, which puts the cost of proposed spending at more than $50bn.
The figure tallies up the cost of almost 25 policies, including;
$10bn one-off income tax cut for low-to-middle income earners.
$6bn to halve the fuel excise for 12 months
$5bn housing infrastructure program
$1.5bn for Melbourne airport rail
$1bn for gas infrastructure fund
The overall figure does not include the Coalition’s commitment to increase defence spending, or its promise to match Labor’s $8.5bn boost to Medicare, which is already accounted for in the Budget.
The figure also doesn’t factor in costs for Dutton’s proposed nuclear reactors, which aren’t slated to be built until the mid-2030s onwards.
The opposition leader is planning to bank savings from a slimmed-down federal public service and make unspecified cuts in other areas.
In a statement, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said Dutton must “come clean on his secret cuts and even harsher cuts”.
“Every extra dollar of spending by the Liberals means an extra dollar cut from health and education.
“Their dodgy and deceptive figures already show a budget black hole worth billions and they’ve got tens of billions of unaccounted spending on top of that.”
Dutton to pledge big defence spending boost
Australia will sink billions of dollars more into defence under a future Coalition government, as Peter Dutton looks to bolster the country’s armed forces, Australian Associated Press reports.
Fresh off the third leaders’ debate, the opposition leader pledged to spend $21bn over the next five years on defence, which would take its share of Australia’s gross domestic product to 2.5%.
The level of defence spending as a percentage of Australia’s economy would then rise further to 3% within the decade.
While the Coalition said it would use the money to reinstate a fourth joint strike fighter squadron, it did not say where else the funding would go.
Dutton said the extra spending on defence was needed in uncertain times globally.
“The prime minister and the deputy prime minister regularly tell Australians that we live in the most precarious period since the end of the second world war. Yet over the last three years Labor has done nothing about it,” he said.
The Coalition will strengthen the Australian defence force and support our servicemen and women to keep us safe today and into generations ahead morale.
The announcement comes after Dutton and Anthony Albanese clashed at the third leaders’ debate in Sydney, with the opposition leader narrowly declared the winner.
As both leaders slung accusations of lying to each other during the hour-long debate, Albanese emphasised a need for stability following uncertainty from US president Donald Trump.
Albanese will begin today campaigning in Sydney, while Dutton will be in Perth.
If you missed the leaders’ debate, here is our full story by Henry Belot.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with some of our top overnight stories before I hand the news baton to Krishani Dhanji.
Peter Dutton has blamed poor polling during the election campaign on Labor attack ads rather than his own performance, including two mistakes and ditching a policy to force some public servants to work from their offices. The third debate was a mostly lacklustre affair that livened up when the leaders were asked to name the other’s biggest lie. Nine’s three-person panel awarded the contest to Dutton by a vote of 2-1.
The opposition leader launches a big defence policy today, with a promise to lift defence spending to 2.5% of the economy. More on this soon.
Amid more turmoil on the world’s financial markets thanks to Donald Trump’s economic policies, there are concerns that the Australian Treasury has underestimated the threat posed by the US trade war after the Monetary Fund slashed its outlook for Australia’s economic growth in 2025. It forecast annual output will be $13bn lower this year than predicted in January and that real GDP growth will drop to 1.6%, from 2.1%. More coming up.
And in more money matters, we’re reporting this morning that Australians would have to wait 70 years for affordable housing if property values follow the “sustainable growth” path advocated by the two major parties. A leading economist calls the claims a “con”.
