Parties clash over spending during final sprint
Six million Australians have either voted already or applied for a postal vote ahead of tomorrow’s federal election, as the campaign heads into the final sprint and cost of living issues continue to dominate.
Asked if Labor would scrap a temporary cut to the fuel excise, scheduled to end in September, Opposition leader Anthony Albanese said ‘‘we will’’ because an incoming government would inherit A$1 trillion (NZ$1.1t) of commonwealth debt.
‘‘We’re being very responsible fiscally during this campaign,’’ Albanese told the Nine Network yesterday. ‘‘We’re making sure that the commitments that we’re making to expenditure in areas like childcare, infrastructure . . . (are) things that will boost the economy, boost productivity.’’
Albanese also attacked the Liberal-National coalition government over what he labelled a ‘‘real wage cut’’ suffered by workers after annual pay packets rose 2.4% despite inflation surging to 5.1%.
He has given his absolute backing to an inflation-equivalent rise in the minimum wage, while the coalition says it will accept any increase decided by the Fair Work Commission.
Labor yesterday released the cost of the promises it has made during the election campaign, totalling A$18.9 billion (NZ$20.9b), which it says will add A$7.4b (NZ$8.2b) to the budget bottom line over the next four years.
Labor has already flagged that its election promises will be partly funded by winding back A$750 million (NZ$829m) in taxpayer-funded grants it has linked to ‘‘waste and rorts’’ under Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government. It also plans to crack down on multinational companies not paying their fair share of tax, and public sector efficiencies.
Morrison claims Labor has made A$25b (NZ$27.6b) of commitments against A$5b (NZ$5.5b) of savings.
Albanese and five of his senior shadow ministers are hitting 20 marginal Liberal-held seats in the final two days of the campaign, kicking off in Sydney and Brisbane yesterday.
Averaging of opinion polls gives Labor a 54.3% to 45.7% twoparty preferred lead over the coalition, according to the Poll Bludger website.
Albanese has revealed that if he is elected tomorrow night, he will form an interim government comprising himself and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who will immediately fly to Tokyo for the Quad leaders meeting, as well as deputy leader Richard Marles.
Meanwhile, Morrison has rejected Albanese’s suggestion that the Liberals’ rhyming campaign ads are mocking people with ethnic names.
The ads carry the jingle ‘‘It won’t be easy under Albanese,’’ and Albanese has said members of Australia’s Italian community have raised concerns with him. He said the ads weren’t racist, but questioned who thought it was amusing to make fun of people’s surnames.
Morrison said the ad was no different to ones the Liberals launched at the last election, which highlighted then-Labor leader Bill Shorten’s name with the slogan, ‘‘The bill you can’t afford’’. – AAP, Nine