Dutton’s cunning plans

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s budget reply speech told us everything we need to know about how a cobbled together Liberal/National/LNP/Country Liberal Coalition Government would look after May 3. The ‘signature’ measure of the speech was a cunning plan to allow a temporary reduction in fuel excise charged to ‘hapless’ motorists. The claim is the average motorist will save $14 a week if the excise is cut in half and the average motorist fills the 55 litre fuel tank in their vehicle once a week. While the ‘average’ motorist may benefit by $14 a week, obviously those who fill far more often or larger fuel tanks will do better, and those who don’t fill fuel tanks will do worse. In 12 months time, it’s back to square one. So if you don’t own a vehicle, own an EV or own a vehicle that does drinks dinosaur juice at a lesser rate than the average, your benefit will be less or nothing at all. It also does nothing for the reduction of consumption of fossil fuels, a necessary building block in the reduction of carbon emissions.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers ‘less than a decent coffee’ tax cut of $5 a week is certainly less magnanimous on the face of it, however it is in addition to existing tax cuts legislated by the Albanese Government 

The Coalition has vowed to repeal Labor’s budget tax cuts, which became law yesterday and will cut the bottom rate of tax from 16 per cent to 15 per cent in the middle of next year, and then to 14 per cent from the year after.

That would give all taxpayers a cut of up to $268 in the first year and $536 a year after that and cost the federal budget $17.1 billion in the first four years.

Dutton’s claim he would legislate to reverse the permanent tax cuts received by all taxpayers if he wins power is an interesting position to take to an election.

You would have thought Dutton’s people would have talked about what questions were likely when selling the fuel excise reduction. The morning after his budget reply speech Dutton was asked on talkback radio if the fuel excise rebate to transport operators would also be cut, to which Dutton had no answer

BEN FORDHAM:

Okay. During COVID, the Coalition cut the fuel excise by 22 cents, but to pay for it, the Coalition took away the petrol and diesel fuel tax credit for truckies. Now, when that credit was canned, truckies really suffered. They want to know this morning, will you dump the fuel tax credits for truckers?

PETER DUTTON:

We are, and we’ve been clear, I think, about that and we’ll provide some more detail today so the truckies won’t be worse off. They’re at the front of our mind as well and we’ve thought about that in the design of what we’re doing. We want to make sure that this has society, or economy-wide benefits. So…

BEN FORDHAM:

How can they not be worse off? What – you’ve got something else for them to make up for it, do you?

PETER DUTTON:

Well, we’ll give some more detail later on today – tonight Ben, so…

Remember Dutton’s cunning plan to meet a nett zero by 2050 ambition by building nuclear power plants and the huge logistical problems? At least one state in Australia requires a referendum to change the law to allow for a nuclear power plant for a start. Dutton’s next problem is explaining to the public how the party that allegedly celebrates free enterprise and small government should be building. owning and operating power stations as well as the funding the body that oversees the safety of the plants if they form a government after May 3. He also needs a lot of energy to be generated from fossil fuel sources to allow for the decade plus timeframes involved in building and commissioning the nuclear power stations. By his own admission nuclear power won’t be ready in time to power the country without assistance from other sources, given that most coal fired power stations will not last another 15 years.

Since the election was called, another Dutton cunning plan has been released to address the dilemma around elderly coal fired power stations. A Dutton Coalition Government would ensure there was a greater gas reserve on the east coast to ensure electricity production would not be affected by the demise of coal fired power plants. Remember Morrison was trying to get energy producers to reserve gas for domestic consumption as well as tempt private companies into construction of new coal fired power stations, the ones the Coalition say are the most efficient form of power production. Morrison found out no one will fund a new one – especially not the energy production companies. 

The gas scheme apparently has similar problems

One of the nation’s leading energy experts and prominent Labor critics has blasted Peter Dutton’s gas reservation plan as a “populist anti-market betrayal of the sector” that repeats the same mistakes the Coalition accused the government of making.

A cornerstone of his opening election campaign pitch, Mr Dutton on Thursday vowed to force gas giants to supply the local market at a discounted $10 per gigajoule, a move aimed at driving down energy bills.

But Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Marquee said the Coalition’s plan would result in less gas being available to Australian users and potentially forcing exporters to curb shipments destined for valued regional allies including Japan.

He also likened it to Labor’s notorious 2022 election promise that household energy bills would fall under its watch.

As reported in The Guardian 

Australia does not have a gas emergency. The Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) has said it expects an annual shortage in southern states from 2029 – later than previously forecast – unless more supply is found. Some steps are being taken to address it. Aemo proposed new production, new gas storage facilities and short-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals. Analysts have suggested an additional option: doing more to cut gas demand by replacing it where possible with renewable electricity.

Dutton’s cunning plan to save some money to fund all his ‘plans’ is apparently to cut all of the 41,000 public service jobs the government has funded to reduce reliance on contractors and consultants. Regardless of the claim that no ’front line’ staff will be affected, anyone who works in or operates a large business will realise that the ‘back office’ staff are just as important as the ‘front line’ staff. Apart from Dutton providing no definition of ‘front line’, how do the ‘front line’ staff get paid, have a desk to work from, a computer connected to the information they need to do their job without ‘back office’ staff?. 41,000 permanently employed staff are numerically less and cheaper than the 50,000 or thereabout consultants and contractors used by the Morrison government to fill holes in service delivery for a start. And while the government’s Finance Minister Katy Gallagher would say that cuts to the government workforce would blow out wait times for various government services, maybe the statistics do indicate she has a point  

In the first quarter of 2024, applicants for the disability support pension waited an average of 109 days. By the October to December quarter, that average wait time was down by 48%, to 57 days.

Jobseekers experienced a similar drop, with the average processing time decreasing from 28 days to nine days.

The average time for Services Australia to answer a call dropped 26%, from 19 minutes in the January to March quarter to 14 minutes 15 seconds by the October to December quarter.

The number of callers diverted to congestion messaging – where a call is answered by an automated voice, which advises the caller that online services are available and then hangs up – was also down 92.7% by 2024’s final quarter, from almost 4.4m to less than 320,000.

If you were around in the 1990s you may remember the British TV series Blackadder, where Blackadder’s sidekick – Baldrick – usually had ‘a cunning plan’ which was usually attempted after everything else failed. Dutton has a number of plans as well, but his plans will release a carbon bomb and decimate service delivery to all Australians. They are not cunning plans, the Coalition would be a disaster.

 

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