00:00Well, one of the big ticket items will be this fuel excise cut that Peter Dutton announced
00:07late last night. Now, that is a plan to save people about $14 a week if they fill up weekly
00:14on fuel. It's something that would cost the budget about $6 billion, but only last for
00:2112 months. And it is one of Peter Dutton's signature cost of living policies. And that's
00:26something that he and Labor have been going head to head on in recent weeks on which party
00:32is better placed to deliver cost of living relief. It will be interesting to see what
00:36else Peter Dutton focuses on. There has been talk in recent weeks of the Coalition's plan
00:42or desire to bring more gas into the system. There's been talk of a gas-led recovery or
00:49something similar to a previous Coalition policy. Peter Dutton spoke on 2GB commercial
00:54radio in Sydney earlier today and said that he would detail more about his gas plans tonight.
01:01Potentially something about keeping more gas onshore to try and bring down prices as part
01:06of their energy mix. The other thing that the Coalition has talked quite a bit about
01:09is defence spending. We know we've heard from the Shadow Defence Minister about the fact
01:15that he believes the budget does not have enough defence spending in it, but he hasn't
01:19been willing as yet to outline what the Coalition would do. So perhaps that's something else
01:24we will hear tonight. There is no doubt that this is a budget reply speech that is a lot
01:28more important than usual because we do seem to be on the eve of an election. Speculation
01:35is mounting in this building that the Prime Minister will potentially go and visit the
01:39Governor-General tomorrow morning. He might not, but it is imminent. So people will be
01:45watching Peter Dutton tonight to see what his plan is going to be and what his messaging
01:49will be for the next six weeks.
01:51The Government has been outspoken about its tax cut policy today amid an almost festive
01:56atmosphere in Parliament House through Question Time this afternoon. What's been the reaction?
02:02This is a policy to cut tax about $5 a week for each person. It's not much. It's what
02:10Labor says is a modest continuation of their tax cut policy. Those laws were introduced
02:16to Parliament immediately. They passed very late last night. Labor wanted to do that because
02:23they wanted to be able to say that the Coalition voted against tax cuts. Indeed they did. Today
02:30Angus Taylor, the Shadow Treasurer, spoke to the ABC. He said that the Opposition would
02:36likely repeal those tax cuts were they in government. So it is handing the Labor Government
02:44their talking point, the fact that they believe the Coalition will have higher taxes if they
02:50win government. The Treasurer Jim Chalmers talked about that just earlier in the afternoon briefing.
02:56No matter what Peter Dutton says in a couple of hours' time, that has been rendered almost
03:02meaningless by the fact that the Coalition has confirmed every taxpayer will pay more
03:07tax if the Coalition wins the election. Australians will earn less and keep less of what they
03:12earn if Peter Dutton wins the election. That proves beyond any doubt that Australians would
03:17be worse off under Peter Dutton.
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