Peter Dutton at times spoke directly to the Prime Minister during his budget reply speech. Photo: Screenshot.
Peter Dutton will sack 41,000 public servants if elected prime minister, but says it will not result in a cut to frontline services for Australians.
The Opposition Leader delivered his budget reply speech in Parliament House Thursday night (27 March) which, just like the budget itself, was more of a campaign launch for the May election.
Also, similar to the budget, the speech didn’t contain too much that hadn’t already been announced.
In a polished address that sometimes spoke directly to the Prime Minister, Mr Dutton denounced the budget as a vote-buying exercise for Anthony Albanese and its tax cuts as a “cruel hoax”.
“Labor will spend $17 billion of taxpayers’ money to give you back 70 cents a day – in 15 months’ time,” the Opposition Leader said.
“And yet, a family with a typical mortgage, under this government, is $50,000 worse off. I think it’s insulting, to be honest.
“We oppose these tax cuts and will repeal them because we think there is a better way to provide assistance to Australians.
“We will provide immediate cost-of-living relief for Australians.”
Mr Dutton promised to introduce a string of cost-saving legislation on day one of the next parliament if the Coalition wins office.
These include the Energy Price Reduction Bill; the Lower Immigration and More Homes for Australians Bill; the Keeping Australians Safe Bill; and the Guaranteed Funding for Health, Education and Essential Services Bill.
He also detailed what measures from the current government he would overturn and undo, including the extra public servants hired by Labor.
“We will end the reckless $20 billion Rewiring the Nation Fund,” Mr Dutton said.
“We will stop the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which has not built a single additional home.
“We will scrap Labor’s nearly $14 billion of production tax credits for green hydrogen because it is not going to work.
“We will reverse Labor’s increase of 41,000 Canberra-based public servants – saving $7 billion a year.
“That’s money we can provide back to the Australian people in frontline services.
“The growth rate of public servants under this government in Canberra is about three times what it was under the Rudd-Gillard government.
“In line with our national interest, we will continue to invest in essential services and critical areas of the economy – like health, aged-care, veterans’ support, the NDIS, Indigenous affairs, child care and defence.
“But I make this guarantee to the Australian people tonight – we won’t cut frontline service delivery roles.
“We will ensure that the services Australians rely on are sustainable.”
As was flagged just hours before his speech, the Opposition Leader detailed a plan to immediately halve the fuel excise for 12 months and make sure the saving is passed on in full to customers.
He also announced a national gas plan aimed at prioritising domestic gas supply, addressing shortfalls and reducing energy prices.
“This is all about ensuring Australian gas is for Australians,” he said.
“We will immediately introduce an east coast gas reservation.
“This will require a proportion – between 50 and 100 petajoules of spot cargo exports – to be delivered to the domestic market.
“This will secure an additional 10 to 20 per cent of the east coast’s demand – gas which would otherwise be exported for use in other markets for consumers in those countries.
“But our gas needs to be first and foremost for our people.
“Gas sold on the domestic market will be de-coupled from overseas markets to protect Australia from international price shocks, and this will drive down new wholesale domestic gas prices from around $14 per gigajoule to under $10 per gigajoule.”
The Coalition will invest $1 billion into a critical gas infrastructure fund to increase gas pipeline and storage capacity, he said.
Mr Dutton also promised to deregister the CFMEU and, in a powerful moment of his speech, spoke across the chamber directly to Mr Albanese on the matter.
“The corrupt and disgraced CFMEU – which has donated $11 million to the Labor Party, that in turn has seen the Labor Party turn a blind eye to them and their illegal conduct – it will be deregistered,” he said.
“Prime Minister, I would never tolerate seeing a member of a union, or any person for that matter, kicking a woman on camera and not even commenting in relation to it.
“It was a disgrace, and it was a disgrace that this government allowed it to happen. It is a common practice from the CFMEU.”
Nuclear energy was only mentioned once throughout the speech.
It was a point not lost on the government, with Education Minister Jason Clare noting it when replying to Mr Dutton’s budget reply.
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