00:00Yeah, good afternoon, Lorna. It is a little bit unusual. Usually, question time would
00:05be dominated by what the government is doing, or is planning to do, at least. But it was
00:09an opposition policy around tax-free lunches for small businesses that dominated much of
00:14at least the first half, I suppose, of question time. This first question time on the first
00:19sitting day of 2020-25, and possibly one of the last before we see a looming federal election.
00:26This policy was released by Peter Dutton only a few weeks ago. It would allow small businesses
00:31to deduct up to $20,000 for meals provided to either their staff or to clients. The government
00:38has really seized on this one. They see this as an opportunity to score some political
00:43points arguing this is essentially a tax break being provided to bosses to take their clients
00:49out to lunch, something they don't think will resonate with the public. But the opposition
00:53is keen to talk this policy up, raising it in question time earlier today. Now, importantly,
00:59this policy hasn't necessarily been costed, or at least the costings for it have not yet
01:03been released publicly by the opposition. Now, the government seized on that and asked
01:08Treasury to run their own costings of this policy, coming back with a cost of somewhere
01:13between $1.6 billion and $10 billion. Now, the opposition disputes those numbers heavily,
01:19but raise this issue in question time regardless, putting to a policy that allows big corporates,
01:25big businesses, to essentially write off the cost of a boardroom lunch, for example, in
01:29a company like Qantas. Here's how the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, responded to that in question
01:34time earlier today.
01:37They couldn't hand in their homework. They either didn't know or wouldn't say how much
01:40their policy costs. We've done their homework for them. The policy that they're trying to
01:45inflict on the Australian people would have workers shout lunches for their bosses and
01:50would smash a $10 billion hole up to in the budget as a consequence.
01:56Now Lorna, it's important to note the opposition absolutely decries that number, says it's
02:02completely ridiculous and says they have costed this policy through the Parliamentary Budget
02:07Office, which is normal procedure, but they haven't made those costings public as yet.
02:11They say they will do so, but the Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, says the cost of
02:15this policy is a fraction of what Jim Chalmers is saying, somewhere around underneath $250
02:21million. He's also criticised what he says is the politicisation of the public service
02:26by asking Treasury to cost the opposition policy. Here's a bit of what he had to say
02:30on this earlier today.
02:33We have a longstanding custom in this country of not politicising the public service, but
02:38it is very clear today the Treasurer is intent on doing exactly that. He has worked with
02:45Treasury to come up with figures that we think and know are absolute nonsense.
02:49OK, so Tom, what did Peter Dutton have to say to his own MPs about the election ahead?
02:55Yeah, we heard from Peter Dutton speaking to the Coalition party room. The leaders often
03:00make the first meetings of their party rooms for the year open to the media to hear the
03:05leaders addressing the troops, addressing their own MPs. We heard from the Prime Minister
03:10doing that with the Labor caucus yesterday. He painted a very optimistic picture in his
03:15own words. He pointed to economic indicators like the inflation rate going down, the unemployment
03:20rate staying low and wages going up as a reason to be optimistic, he says, about the year
03:25ahead. Peter Dutton really picked up on that sentiment from the Prime Minister in his own
03:30speech to the Coalition party room, saying there really isn't room for that optimism
03:34under the Albanese government, he argues, pointing to his own figures around the closure
03:40of small businesses, for example, and the rising costs that Australians have seen over
03:45the past three years. Here's a bit of Peter Dutton's speech to his party room earlier
03:49today.
03:50I think we've all heard a message right across the country, and it's not the Prime Minister's
03:54message that this is a year of optimism and that people are sort of, you know, very happy
04:00with where the government's at. It's not that situation at all. There are families
04:04who thought two and a half years ago that this was going to be a government for them
04:08and this was going to be a Prime Minister who understood their concerns. It's been anything
04:13but that.
04:15Peter Dutton says there is momentum for change in his own words. That's the sentiment he's
04:20seeing. He says the Coalition will be talking freely and frankly to the public over the
04:25next few months. If there is that momentum for change, Peter Dutton will get the chance
04:29to test it, at least, at an election in a few months' time.
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