Peter Dutton still can’t say how he would pay for anything, other than saying that the spending is not “baked in” – so it is not ongoing.

But that doesn’t make it free. It just means that it is not an ongoing spend. And given that the Coalition keeps harping on about returning the budget to a structural surplus – that means it is either going to tax more (and that could be multinational corporations) or it is going to cut services and funding.

The Coalition has said it will not be taxing more. So that leaves cuts. Which is another way of saying ‘austerity’.

If you cut government services and funding, you are putting the burden on the lower and middle classes to pay more for things the government used to pay for, or miss out.

It is one of the worst things you can do (at anytime) but particularly when economic conditions appear uncertain and people start to hold on to their money because of that uncertainty. It can send economies into recession.