The ‘sledge-a-thon’ begins: Leaders square off on tax and Trump

“Australians will be getting a tax cut every time they visit a petrol station under a Dutton Coalition government,” he said.

Labor campaign strategists are seeking to prolong the argument over tax and excise in the belief Albanese is gaining ground thanks to this week’s personal tax cut, but Coalition sources argued their help on petrol and diesel prices was resonating strongly with suburban voters.

Albanese acknowledged that Australians had suffered from cost-of-living pressures but contrasted his plans with Dutton’s proposal for heavy spending on nuclear power stations.

“The world today is an uncertain place, but I am absolutely certain of this: now is not the time for cutting and wrecking, for aiming low, for punching down or looking back,” Albanese said.

“This is a time for building. Building on our nation’s strengths, building our security and prosperity for ourselves, building an Australia where no one is held back and no one is left behind.”

Dutton responded with a warning that living standards had fallen during the past three years, saying this meant the country could not afford three more years of Labor.

“Labor’s economic policies and wasteful spending have increased the cost of living for everyday Australians,” he said.

“Too many young Australians feel that the dream of homeownership is completely beyond them. And what sort of prime minister in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis promises a 70¢-a-day tax cut starting in 15 months’ time. Australian families need relief now.”

Trump cast a shadow over the campaign from its first day after Albanese made an oblique reference to borrowing policy from others.

“We live in the greatest country on earth, and we do not need to copy from any other nation to make Australia even better and stronger,” he said.

Asked if he was suggesting Dutton was copying the policies of Trump, Albanese said: “other people will make their own judgements” and then began a lengthy attack on Dutton’s proposal to cut public servants to save an estimated $10 billion over four years.

Albanese argued this would endanger services ranging from emergency management to support for veterans, and became emotional when he recalled his mother, Maryanne, receiving treatment at a public hospital before she died in 2002. As a pensioner, Maryanne received the same care as the late media billionaire Kerry Packer when he went to the same hospital, Albanese said.

“There are a range of ideas that have been borrowed from others,” he said. “We need the Australian way. The Australian way is that we look after each other.”

He held up his Medicare card as proof, declaring: “That’s what I’ll fight for.”

When this masthead asked Dutton whether he was borrowing policies from Trump, he defended his plan to cut public servants by saying Australians wanted to stop waste in government.

Asked a second time about the Trump comparison, Dutton said: “The sledge-a-thon is on by the prime minister because he doesn’t have a good story to tell about his three years in government.”

While the Coalition policy has infuriated critics, it has helped build a campaign war chest that could allow Dutton to promise at least $21 billion in spending policies or improvements in the budget bottom line.

The Coalition’s one-year fuel excise policy is $11 billion cheaper than Labor’s personal tax cuts, which stretch over the forward estimates, while the public service cuts could reduce outlays by $10 billion over four years, widening the gulf between the two major parties on their election costings.

Dutton made several claims about the cost of living in his message to voters on Friday, but his claim about grocery prices was at odds with official statistics.

“Australians are now paying on average 18 per cent more for rent, 30 per cent more for groceries, and over 30 per cent more for power and gas,” he said.

Rents have risen by 18 per cent and gas and other fuels have risen by 30 per cent, but Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 14 per cent.

A spokesman for Dutton said he had been relying on grocery figures from SEC Newgate, but this masthead was unable to confirm those figures before deadline.

The campaign begins with Labor fighting to retain power after a series of opinion polls showed voters had turned against the government since the last election, although the gap has narrowed after the government unveiled a series of big spending policies before this week’s budget.

The most recent Resolve Political Monitor conducted for this masthead, published one month ago, showed the Coalition had gained ground during February to hold 55 per cent of the national vote in two-party terms, far ahead of Labor on 45 per cent.

But a series of opinion polls showed Labor gaining ground after it began announcing budget policies, including investments in Medicare, roads and schools.

Independent analyst Adrian Beaumont, a statistician at the University of Melbourne, wrote on March 17 that Labor had led in three of the last opinion polls.

“There has been improvement for Labor across a range of polls in the last few weeks,” he said.

Labor begins the formal campaign with 78 seats and the Coalition 54 in the House of Representatives, including one vacant seat on each side after the resignations of Bill Shorten and Keith Pitt earlier this year. The Greens hold four seats and independents 15.

But the Coalition is in a slightly stronger position after recent redistributions, with ABC election analyst Antony Green calculating that the Coalition has 57 seats going into the campaign – meaning it would need to win 19 more seats to reach a narrow majority.

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