Peter Dutton will outline his plan for the economy tonight including a promise of cheaper fuel if the Opposition wins government. Mr Dutton’s budget reply speech comes on what could be the eve of an election campaign with speculation mounting the prime minister will head to the governor-general's residence tomorrow.
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00:00Well, one of the big ticket items will be this fuel excise cut that Peter Dutton announced
00:07late last night. Now, that is a plan to save people about $14 a week if they fill up weekly
00:14on fuel. It's something that would cost the budget about $6 billion, but only last for
00:2112 months. And it is one of Peter Dutton's signature cost of living policies. And that's
00:26something that he and Labor have been going head to head on in recent weeks on which party
00:32is better placed to deliver cost of living relief. It will be interesting to see what
00:36else Peter Dutton focuses on. There has been talk in recent weeks of the Coalition's plan
00:42or desire to bring more gas into the system. There's been talk of a gas-led recovery or
00:49something similar to a previous Coalition policy. Peter Dutton spoke on 2GB commercial
00:54radio in Sydney earlier today and said that he would detail more about his gas plans tonight.
01:01Potentially something about keeping more gas onshore to try and bring down prices as part
01:06of their energy mix. The other thing that the Coalition has talked quite a bit about
01:09is defence spending. We know we've heard from the Shadow Defence Minister about the fact
01:15that he believes the budget does not have enough defence spending in it, but he hasn't
01:19been willing as yet to outline what the Coalition would do. So perhaps that's something else
01:24we will hear tonight. There is no doubt that this is a budget reply speech that is a lot
01:28more important than usual because we do seem to be on the eve of an election. Speculation
01:35is mounting in this building that the Prime Minister will potentially go and visit the
01:39Governor-General tomorrow morning. He might not, but it is imminent. So people will be
01:45watching Peter Dutton tonight to see what his plan is going to be and what his messaging
01:49will be for the next six weeks.
01:51The Government has been outspoken about its tax cut policy today amid an almost festive
01:56atmosphere in Parliament House through Question Time this afternoon. What's been the reaction?
02:02This is a policy to cut tax about $5 a week for each person. It's not much. It's what
02:10Labor says is a modest continuation of their tax cut policy. Those laws were introduced
02:16to Parliament immediately. They passed very late last night. Labor wanted to do that because
02:23they wanted to be able to say that the Coalition voted against tax cuts. Indeed they did. Today
02:30Angus Taylor, the Shadow Treasurer, spoke to the ABC. He said that the Opposition would
02:36likely repeal those tax cuts were they in government. So it is handing the Labor Government
02:44their talking point, the fact that they believe the Coalition will have higher taxes if they
02:50win government. The Treasurer Jim Chalmers talked about that just earlier in the afternoon briefing.
02:56No matter what Peter Dutton says in a couple of hours' time, that has been rendered almost
03:02meaningless by the fact that the Coalition has confirmed every taxpayer will pay more
03:07tax if the Coalition wins the election. Australians will earn less and keep less of what they
03:12earn if Peter Dutton wins the election. That proves beyond any doubt that Australians would
03:17be worse off under Peter Dutton.