Both major parties launched their campaigns today, three weeks out from election day.
This campaign’s mantra has been spend, spend, spend, and today was no different.
The Coalition is making the mortgages of first home buyers tax deductible for the initial five years of the loan, as long as they buy brand new homes. It applies on the first $650,000 of the mortgage, after that you’re on your own.
Let’s just hope these new entrants into the housing market can still afford their loans once the tax deductibility period ends. Banks will need to keep a close eye on that when doling out loans.
Labor’s first home buyers guarantee is designed to relax credit markets and remove the need to pay for expensive mortgage insurance which banks require when a smaller deposit is all the mortgagee can offer.
The government claims its modelling says the loan guarantees won’t simply push prices further north. That’s hard to believe, but I suppose it’s less likely to put upward pressure on house prices than the Coalition’s alternative.
This election campaign is starting to resemble that old Demtel advertisement Tim Shaw fronted: but wait there’s more!
Today Labor also announced a tax deduction policy of their own. Albo has pledged to introduce an instant $1,000 tax deduction for anyone who would rather than than filing a more detailed tax return.
Labor’s first home buyers guarantee is designed to relax credit markets and remove the need to pay for expensive mortgage insurance which banks require when a smaller deposit is all the mortgagee can offer
It doesn’t come into effect until 2026/27, so it’s not exactly instant cost of living relief, but it’s good policy. It simplifies the tax system for many Australians and is genuine reform, albeit low hanging fruit that should have been adopted long before now.
The closer we ebb to polling day the more electoral bribes the major parties are throwing out onto the ether. Respectively to maintain their lead in the polls (Labor) or to try and bridge the growing gap between the major parties (the Coalition’s dilemma).
For those of us worried about the state of the budget and the nation’s fiscal stability, let’s hope today’s bipartisan campaign launch spend-a-thon is the end of the burly being tossed out to voters.
Because every promise is funded by interest accruing debt.
In terms of appearances both campaign launches were slick and professionally managed. Dutton didn’t hide from his nuclear energy promise even if it wasn’t the designed focal point. Today’s wasn’t Albo’s first rodeo, and he appeared confident and in control. No issues with the stage on this occasion.
Official campaign launches used to be reserved for the weekend right before polling day. A quirk of travel allowance rules meant that politicians could continue to charge taxpayers for the costs of campaigning right up until the formal launch was held
So, as you might expect, parties would ‘launch’ their campaigns late, to maximise the public funding they each benefited from during campaigns.
That rule was changed some years back, such that taxpayers pay for political allowances right up to election day, thereby allowing for earlier launches.
The Coalition is making the mortgages of first home buyers tax deductible for the initial five years of the loan, as long as they buy brand new homes. It applies on the first $650,000 of the mortgage, after that you’re on your own
Holding campaign launches more than a week out from election day also makes sense now that more and more voters choose to cast their ballots early, either at pre-polling booths or via the post. As many as 30 percent of people now vote early.
Given that campaign launches are designed to woo voters with bells and whistles and new policy announcements, there not much point in holding them after millions of people have already voted.
This year’s election campaign overlaps with the Easter and Anzac long weekends which run one after the other, with polling day the weekend after that on May 3.
That effectively left this weekend as the only time for the major parties to launch their campaigns, with Labor holding theirs in Perth for a second consecutive election and the Liberals holding theirs in Sydney’s west where they hope to win enough seats to deny Labor majority government.
If a Coalition comeback is on the cards it needs to start in western Sydney.
Both campaign launches included major policy announcements, as mentioned, with the usual fanfare designed to build momentum for the remaining weeks left in the campaign.
At one level it’s hardly surprising both leaders are spending money the country doesn’t have. A Newspoll released just prior to the election being called found that over 80 percent of voters support new spending to help alleviate cost of living pressures.
The politicians are simply giving the public what it wants. Which is why that saying ‘we get the politicians we deserve’ is absolutely right.
