The Coalition says its full election policy costings on Thursday will show the budget would be more than $10bn better off and debt would be $40bn lower over the next four years than under Labor.
The long-awaited release of the detailed accounting of Coalition commitments will come two days out from the election, and after about 5 million Australians have already cast their vote, either at pre-poll centres or by post.
The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, said in a statement “we can’t afford more of Labor’s reckless spending”.
“The Coalition will restore discipline, reduce debt, and deliver cost-of-living relief that doesn’t fuel inflation,” Hume said.
Among the Coalition’s signature election commitments are $6bn to halve the fuel excise for a year, and a one-off tax cut of as much as $1,200 for 10 million workers, at a price of $10bn.
Peter Dutton has pledged to boost defence spending by $21bn over the coming five years, and also committed to match “dollar for dollar” Labor’s landmark $8.5bn plan to dramatically increase Medicare bulk-billing rates for GP visits.
Allowing first home buyers to claim mortgage interest in their tax return for five years would cost $1.25bn, the Coalition said.
Cost savings would be achieved through reducing the size of the public service workforce in Canberra by 41,000 people over the next three years “though natural attrition” – a goal that cannot be achieved without slashing key services it has promised to protect.
The Coalition has also announced plans to scrap a number of Albanese government programs, including closing the $20bn rewiring the nation fund and the $10bn housing Australia future fund.
Dutton has promised to not go ahead with Labor’s promise to cut student debts by 20%. Unwinding tax breaks for electric vehicles would save $3bn over four years, the Coalition says.
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Labor released its full election policy costings on Monday, which showed a plan to slash a further $6.4bn from the use of consultants, labour hire and external service providers in the public service over the coming four years.
That, alongside an extra $760m to be raised from higher fees on international student visa applications, would pay for the extra spending announced over the past five weeks of the campaign and not provided for in the March budget.
Anthony Albanese told the National Press Club on Wednesday “the reason they (the Coalition) have not released their costings yet is because they don’t want to come clean on the savage cuts they will need to make to pay for their nuclear reactors and what that means for Medicare or pensions and payments”.
While the PM taunted his political opponents for not releasing costings earlier, during the 2022 election Labor also released its pre-election costings on the final Thursday of the campaign.
