Australian news and politics recap: Coalition releases full costings, takes aim at Labor’s ‘lies’

We’re closing down our live coverage for the evening.

Catch up on all of today’s news and views in The Nightly’s latest edition, or scroll through the posts below to recap the day’s events.

Make sure you join us first thing tomorrow for more rolling coverage on the final day of the election campaign.

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Anthony Albanese is now touring a TAFE in Tonsley, in the electorate of Boothby in Adelaide.

For the second time today he’s flanked by a popular Labor premier, this time South Australian leader Peter Malinauskas.

They will chat with plumbing students digging in a hole in the middle of the impressive facility.

Apprentice Mitch explains to the PM that they are learning how to build dog-legs, which he describes as one of the most important parts of a plumbing system.

He tells Mr Albanese he plans to open his own business down the track.

“I’ve never met an unemployed plumber,” Mr Albanese tells him.

The Nightly’s Jackson Hewett has been busy diving into the numbers.

He reports:

The Coalition intends to shave $40 billion off Australia’s long term debt if it wins the election on Saturday, announcing $14b in savings over the next four years.

But election promises will see the Budget bottom line worsen over the next two years than forecast under its Pre-Election and Fiscal Outlook, due to $7.8b in spending commitments.

Here’s his story in full.

The Treasurer has his tail up and he’s not holding back.

“There are at least five substantial holes in the Coalition’s costings. They haven’t provided anywhere near enough for their nuclear reactors.

“They’ve got their numbers wrong on their job cuts in the Australian Public Service.

“They’ve got their numbers wrong on their long lunches policy, on their petrol policy and on their mortgage deductibility policy as well.

“It’s hard to imagine that Angus Taylor has had three years to come up with this, and he’s come up with at least five substantial black holes in his costings that he has released this afternoon.

“These costings released this afternoon by the Coalition are a joke. They are a sham.

“They are a costings con job and what they show is if Peter Dutton wins the election on Saturday, Australians will pay higher taxes.

“There will be savage cuts to make people worse off and they’ll still be bigger deficits over the next couple of years.”

Dr Chalmers doesn’t clarify how the Coalition has its numbers wrong.

In news that will surprise no one, the Treasurer has come out all guns blazing in response to the Coalition releasing its costings.

“Higher taxes, savage cuts and still bigger deficits under the Coalition are in their costings today,” Dr Chalmers says.

“Now there are savage cuts in Peter Dutton’s costings, but they are just the beginning. Savage cuts to training, savage cuts to housing, savage cuts to energy and higher income taxes for 14 million Australians and more student debt for students.

“Theirs is a recipe for higher taxes, savage cuts and bigger deficits all at the same time. That’s what these costings reveal today.”

Peter Dutton received several thumbs up, words of encouragement, and has taken selfies as he walked through a rural agricultural show in the northern Tasmanian seat of Lyons this afternoon.

“Is that Peter Dutton?” a group of girls yelled as he walked by, while others asked him for selfies.

The opposition leader climbed into a John Deere tractor and played with toy dump trucks in a sand pit during the visit.

“Good luck, mate” one man yelled as Mr Dutton walked by.

Lemont boy Darcy Shadbolt and his friend Bruce Cameron from Chudleigh weren’t fazed by the commotion or the media press pack following Mr Dutton’s campaign.

Darcy’s mother Andrea White said she cared about health this election and felt local member Susie Bower was doing more to deserve her vote.

She liked that the Liberals were also committed to improving health.

“I always vote Liberal. I’m sick of the Labor candidate running down the Liberal party,” she said, when asked her voting record.

“It would be nice to have a better health system. We only have one main GP. And I feel like if you improve that, reduce the pressure on emergency departments.”

A local nurse who was volunteering at a food fundraiser for a school said she had already cast her ballot early for the Liberals because she felt Ms Bower was more focused on improving hospitals.

A reporter notes that while the next four years puts the Coalition’s finances in a better position than Labor’s, the deficits in the short term - the next two years - are worse initally.

“You have the risk of inflation surging. How will running bigger deficits put downward pressure on inflation? Credit ratings agencies, how will they be satisfied over the next two years? There is a risk of losing control of the Budget because make your bottom line will be worse,” the journalist asks.

“Over the four years, it is $14 billion better,” Mr Taylor responds.

“It is important. It is important for inflation because a lot of what drives inflation is expectations.

“You will see substantial anti-inflammatory measures in place. Reducing the price of fuel by 25 cents a litre, reducing the price of a really fundamental input to a lot of Australian families, including my electorate.

“And so we will see under a Liberal government a focus on getting the economy growing, cutting waste, slashing red tape, getting moving, and all these things are the ingredients not just for growth, which is usually important, but for beating inflation.

“And you will also see a better bottom line over the forwards, and that is crucial. I’m very confident that this will put downward pressure on inflation.”

Mr Taylor and Ms Hume wrap up their appearance.

We’ll have Treasurer Jim Chalmers speaking in just over 15 minutes to respond to the release of the costings.

Questioned about the projected deficits of $140 billion over the next four years, Mr Taylor says the Coalition will bring the Budget back to surplus faster than Labor.

“We will get there faster than Labor. And a critical reason we know that is there is a $14 billion improvement here - the biggest improvement you have seen since the cost of conventions went into place, outside of Bill Shorten wanting to whack Australians with almost $400 billion of taxes. So that is the focus.”

A reporter puts it to the shadow treasurer that the costings show bigger Budget deficits than Labor for the first two years, but Mr Taylor is having none of it.

“There is a $14 billion improvement across the forwards. We are fixing two messes created by Labor. There are many but I will focus on two. The household budget and the government Budget. And frankly Labor’s homegrown inflation and economic failures have been truly damaging to both.”

He points to the “$40 billion reduction in gross debt” shown in the costings.

“We are doing that at the same time as we are investing heavily in protecting our great nation. Which Labor seems to have forgotten about. Getting this balance across these imperatives is the right thing to do and we are strengthening the budget while we’re at it.”

Turning to their own plans, Senator Hume outlines the vision for the future while talking about the much-vaunted cuts to the public service.

“We will cut waste, control expenditure growth and ensure that every dollar that is spent by government is focused on delivering essential services and strengthening our nation, not growing bureaucracy,” she says.

“We have already announced our plan to sensibly reduce the size of the APS by 41,000 over a period of five years, through a hiring freeze and through natural attrition, bringing the APS back to a sustainable level, while protecting the services delivery and national security positions.

“And we’ve identified other sensible saves to repair the Budget as well. But we know the good economic management is about preparing for the future, not just patching up the present.

“And this is something that both the IMF and S&P global have made very clear recently. That’s why we will harness today’s windfalls, not squander them on politically convenient spending.

“We will lock in a discipline by allocating of annual windfalls to establish the future generations fund. This fund will preserve our nation’s wealth for future, for the future, driving long-term prosperity, and ensuring that those one-off gains don’t become structural burdens to be dealt with by our children and our grandchildren.

“This will also help protect the Budget from political expediency and short-term thinking.”