ScoMo or Shorten… Pauline or Clive? The Sex Party? The Greens? The upcoming federal election is shaping up to be one of the most uninspiring Australia has had in a while, it’s hard to tell who has promised what, which candidate is the least boring and who is addressing issues that are most important to you personally.
We’ve done a round up of some key policy areas to help you figure up what’s left from right.
TAX
It goes without saying that we’re paying extra attention to these policies. It’s shaping up as a particularly important election for small business with many Australian’s operating with low margins and often struggling to meet tax obligations. Both parties are promising tax cuts, with negative gearing coming under contention (as usual) and franking credits getting a lot of air time.
LIBERAL
- The tax offset for low to middle income earners will immediately be doubled
- Raising the 19% threshold from 41k to 45k in July 2022
- Flatten the tax bracket for everyone between 40k to 200k who will all pay 30% from 2024
- No changes to negative gearing, capital gains tax, franking credits or tax of trusts
LABOR
- Promises the same or bigger tax cuts that the Coalition for 10m people
- The difference is, Labor oppose the tax bracket flattening
- Abolish negative gearing for investors buying existing houses from Jan 2020. Investments purchased before then will still benefit from negative gearing, as well as those in new properties after that date
- The CGT discount will be reduced from 50% to 25% meaning more CGT tax to pay when you sell your investments
- No more franking credits! This is estimated to raise more than $10 billion over four years
- They are proposing to tax trust distributions to those over 18 at a minimum of 30%
ENVIRONMENT
Climate change and what we’re doing to our planet is an issue that holds a lot of importance to many Australians, particularly the younger generations and it’s set to swing votes in this election more than ever.
LIBERAL
- ScoMo proposed a $2 billion fund to reduce emissions, with funding to be rolled out over 15 years. Whether this will pass within the party is up in the air though with many hardcore right wingers in their caucus
- The Climates Solutions fund proposes that farmers and businesses can big for cash from taxpayers to cut pollution but no policy has been set in stone
LABOR
- Their general tact is to keep the Coalition policies and build on them by increasing the emissions reduction target and making it faster, too
- $5 billion towards modernising the ageing transmission infrastructure with the aim of increasing renewable energy and decreasing coal station use over time
- They’re also looking at putting incentives into place for business to use low emissions vehicles
HEALTH
An election campaign must-have. This year, it’s all about mental health and cancer funding.
LIBERAL
- A huge range of new drugs will be subsidised
- Youth mental health and suicide prevention will receive another $461 million
- Another $5.5 million for additional mental health services in Tas, Vic and Qld
- $5 million over 4 years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide prevention initiative
- $496 million package for cancer treatment and hospital infrastructure among other things
LABOR
- Cancer is by far the biggest focus for the opposition with a $2.3 billion cancer plan announced to fund things such as free cancer scans and consultations with oncologists and surgeons
- Every drug recommended by experts to be funded by general revenue
- $2.8 billion for hospitals with a focus on emergency and new ward funding
EDUCATION
The main point of contention this election (and with many previous) is how funding is allocated – do private school need more money or should public schools be the focus?
LIBERAL
- $4.6 billion (on top of the already committed $23.5 billion from Turnbull) for Catholic and independent schools
- Two year freeze on growth of funding for commonwealth supported uni places to save around $2 billion
- Taxpayer funding for up to 15 hours of preschool for 4 years old will be extended til 2021
- Increased skills package aiming to place 80,000 new apprentices in areas with skills shortages by doubling employer incentive payments and $2000 for new apprentices.
LABOR
- They’ll ditch the current funding for non-government schools and focus the money more on public
- An additional $14 billion over 10 years to go to public schools and $250 million in the first two years for Catholic schools
- 15 hours a week of tax payer funded childcare for 3 and 4 years olds
- Freeze of commonwealth grants to be reversed to make room for another 200,000 uni places
- $1 billion package for Tafe & vocational education including funding for facilities, fee free places and apprentice subsidies
What about Pauline, Clive and Richard? Here are some highlights for you:
It wouldn’t be a federal election in Australia without these… unusual… candidates.
- The Greens are for the low-income tax offset but against the income tax cuts and flattened tax rates. They’ve nominated 2030 to be the cut-off point for all thermal coal exports and completely ban new internal combustion cars by 2030, as well as introduce a 17% tax on luxury fossil fuel cars. They would allocate $20.5 billion over the next 10 years to public schools and want to make undergraduate studies free
- Pauline would like to limit population growth, stop Muslim immigration and withdraw from the UN
- Clive Palmer wants to restrict the options of super funds, limiting them to invest in Australia only. He wants business to pay tax once a year rather than quarterly, increase the aged pension payments and allow people to claim tax deductions on interest paid on their mortgage
It’s a mind-field guys! But we hope this has cleared things up a bit for you. We’d highly recommend taking the ABC vote compass to help point you in the right direction for this election too. You can find it here.
As always, get in touch with any questions.
