Why won’t Labor be brave enough to look at scrapping or at least changing negative gearing?

Jason Clare:

Well, because I don’t think it’s the right solution. It’s not going to help increase supply. It a might even do the reverse for young people in my community that are struggling with renting, that increase in rental support is important – 45% increase there.

So is the Build To Rent policy. So we get the companies that rental accommodation that can give you a five-year tenancy so you don’t get kicked out on a Saturday emergency with the owner wanting to sell it but you got that security making it easier for young people to buy a house with a smaller deposit.

That’s what that 5% deposit is all about. But in the just there, Bridget, as you know, I’m the Education Minister of Australia.

One of the big policies that’s on the ballot on May 3 is our proposal to cut HECS debt by 20%. Now, there are three million Aussies with a HECS debt at the moment. The average HECS debt would be cut by more than 5,000 bucks if Labor wins on May 3. The Liberals have said they won’t do a damn thing when it comes to HECS debt. If Albo wins, if Labor wins, we’ll cut the HECS debt of every Australian by 20%. That will help a lot of Australians that have that debt and are struggling to get into the housing market.

Sigh.

And on the negative gearing modelling that was or wasn’t commissioned, Jason Clare says:

Well, first, we’re in the making any changes to negative gearing. I think the Treasurer asked – was asked this question last year and said that he sought advice in his department but he haven’t commissioned modelling from Treasury.

The fact is that ministers, people like me, ask our department questions about issues that are in the media all the time.

You would hope if Peter Dutton ever became Prime Minister of Australia that he would do the same, that he would ask for advice, but it seems the position of the Liberal Party is just to sack public servants. Our approach is to seek advice.

Did Jason Clare, official spokesperson for the Labor campaign, watch the leaders’ debate? (If he didn’t, he’d be in a bit of trouble me thinks)

I thought the contrast between the two leaders was pretty clear. You saw in the Prime Minister a calm and responsible leader and in Peter Dutton you saw somebody who was just agro and reckless.

What was it – in the space of an hour he confessed he lied about the foreign leader? He couldn’t give a straight answer on climate change, and he couldn’t give a straight answer on cuts. He said he eat cut more but wouldn’t say what he would cut to pay for these $600 billion worth of nuclear reactors. So I suspect most people who saw the debate would say, “Look this bloke is not ready to be Prime Minister, not fit to be Prime Minister of Australia and not the right person at this time to be the Prime Minister of Australia.”

On Tuesday, shadow education minister Sarah Henderson let the cat out of the bag on fee-free TAFE. Speaking to a room full of voters in Geelong, Henderson complained that the government’s expenses on fee-free TAFE had cost the budget $1.5 billion.
“I am sorry”, she told the crowd. “It’s just not working”.

It’s not the first sign that the Coalition would make cuts in this area. Back in November, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley spoke on behalf of private vocational education providers who may not love having to compete with the Commonwealth.

Couching her remarks in the garb of Liberal Party values, Ley said “if you don’t pay for something, you don’t value it.”
It fell to Coalition spokesperson Jane Hume to hold the line yesterday, telling reporters that she doesn’t believe fee-free TAFE is “delivering on its promise”.

Here are a few key facts to clear things up on this matter.

In its first budget, the government allocated $871.7 million over 5 years for fee-free TAFE places in “industries and regions with skill shortages”. The commitment was for 480,000 places in the areas with the most acute skills bottlenecks.

Last year, the government promised in its budget a further $88.8 million to provide for 20,000 fee-free places in housing-related TAFE courses. Their promise at this election is to make 100,000 fee-free places a permanent part of the vocational training landscape.

Total Commonwealth spending on vocational education has risen during this parliament, but final budget outcomes have shown that the government spent $28 million less than budgeted for in 2022-23, and $114 million less than planned in 2023-24. Hardly a sign of fiscal recklessness.

Even if the Coalition were right about its $1.5 billion figure, that pales in comparison with other key tax concessions in the federal budget. Treasury has estimated that the capital gains tax discount (for individuals and trusts) cost the budget $19 billion in 2023-24.

So fee-free TAFE is not unaffordable. It’s also working, with more than 568,000 enrolments in the right skills areas so far.

Everyone deserves the chance to get a good education. $260 million for a few technical colleges for high school students is nice but isn’t enough to unclog Australia’s skills bottlenecks.

Bridget McKenzie is not having a great couple of days.

Yesterday, she was forced to apologise for saying this on the ABC:

The defence minister of Russia [Andrey Belousov] and the Chinese leader [Xi Jinping] both have made very public comments that they do not want to see Peter Dutton as the prime minister of our country.

There’s two world leaders who don’t want to see Peter Dutton become prime minister of our country. That’s all I’m saying. That’s Russia and China.”

The SMH’s Matthew Knott reports McKenzie had to say sorry shortly after:

“I made a mistake, I was wrong with what I said about the Russian defence minister and Chinese leader. I can’t verify it.”

Watching McKenzie on the Nine Network this morning, it seems McKenzie still needs to brush up on her foreign affairs. Asked by a Nine reporter why she made the comments in the first place, McKenzie said:

Well, I think it’s pretty clear from President Xi’s public commentary that he finds Albo a very handsome boy. He’s been very complimentary about the prime minister, and Russia has made it very, very clear. Russia’s made it very clear. They think the AUKUS … pact between Australia, the UK and the USA is a security risk for them in this region. And they’ve been very public about those comments. Now Peter Dutton drove that significant agreement when we were in government.

Except that wasn’t Xi who made the “handsome boy” comments. It was China’s premier, Li Qiang, who made those comments during Albanese’s visit to Beijing.

“People were saying that we have a handsome boy coming from Australia,” Li said in 2023.

Sussan Ley moves on to what she wants to talk about – the Coalition’s first education policy this campaign; $260 million to build 12 new technical colleges for students in years 10 to 12.

Ley says tech colleges are a missing link in education:

They are a thing of the past. I think that we had the policy right in the Howard era. It was trashed by Rudd when he came into government, and replaced with something that didn’t work at all. What we want to see is skills back in schools.

We will always reject the notion that if you haven’t made it to university – you haven’t made it in life. And the rates of attendance of students going to university is going up with respect to going to a vocational course.

What that means is that careers advisor, schools, the system, is pushing kids to an ATAR, to a university qualification, that many of them are not suited to. Our Australian technical college will have kids in Year 10, 11 and 12 starting work on the tools, and this is critical – connected to a school-based apprenticeship. So they’ve got an employer.

They’ve got work. They’ve got a pathway. And I visited some of the schools, because they’re still survived the Labor cuts all those years ago and they are doing incredible work. And I want to see excellence in skills. I don’t want to see kids getting in a bus and going to TAFE on Thursday afternoon and struggling to do something called VET in schools. I want to see schools that deliver this in a first class way.

Would it undercut TAFE?

This policy sits alongside TAFE. This is a policy inside schools. But sometimes, we’re pushing our school kids out of the school setting to attend a TAFE course, often some suburbs away. So, this policy is dedicated to Years 10, 11 and 12. As I said, we want more skills – not less. We want high-quality training, whether it is in TAFE for older Australians, or whether it is in school for students.

What about Peter Dutton having to apologise and admit he made a mistake about verballing the Indonesian president?

Sussan Ley:

Peter addressed that in the debate last night. What I would say is that the Prime Minister needs to be on top of the briefings that he gets, in the position that he is in in order to know exactly what is going on in our region and the world.

And we always have the strength when it comes to national security and foreign policy that I didn’t see in this government. And I certainly haven’t seen in recent weeks.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL. Dutton overstepped and that’s Anthony Albanese’s problem? LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Did Sussan Ley catch the debate?

Yes, I did.

You’ll be shocked by her take. SHOCKED I tell you.

Ley:

I saw a very weak, indecisive Prime Minister and a very strong Opposition Leader. And I was particularly blown away, Bridget, by the Prime Minister not fessing up that his own Government modelled changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax with respect to homeownership.

And I just want to contrast that with our policy to really get young Australians into that dream first home and started on the ladder of aspiration that I know they’re missing out on under this Government.

So I think that a lot of Australians watching that debate would agree with me. This election is a clear choice between who can better manage the economy and help all Australians to get ahead. And who is, in fact, overseeing the biggest decline in living standards that we have ever had in our country’s history in this Labor government.

But very excited to be here talking about a subject so close to my heart and I know many Australian families, parents and schools, and that is how we skill the next generation.

Jim Chalmers had a quick press conference after last night’s debate, where he cleaned up some of the lingering questions Anthony Albanese had stumbled over.

One was over whether or not the government commissioned modelling from Treasury on scrapping negative gearing:

First of all, I want to remind you, I think, as you know, we have been very, very clear. We are not proposing changes to negative gearing. We’ve got a plan for housing, we’ve got a plan for tax, and that’s not in it. We’ve made that clear. And what I’ve said before is entirely consistent with what the Prime Minister said tonight. From time to time, the public service provides us with views on matters that are in the public domain, and that’s what the Prime Minister said tonight.

And when will Australians start to see their energy bills come down?

What we’ve seen in the last year, according to the OECD, is the lowest energy inflation in the developed world, and that’s because of the $300, partly because of the $300 energy bill rebate, that Peter Dutton didn’t support. Energy bills would have been $300 higher last year, if Peter Dutton had his way.

Now we’ve made it really clear that when it comes to getting energy bills down, electricity bills down, we’re providing energy bill rebates at the front end, and we’re introducing more cleaner and cheaper energy into the system. The alternative is these nuclear reactors, which will cost more and take longer and push electricity prices up.

I thought the Prime Minister did a terrific job setting out the choice for Australians, nuclear reactors paid for by secret cuts to Medicare under Peter Dutton, or more renewables, more cleaner and cheaper energy, and energy bill rebates for the Australian people. Because we recognise that even though we’ve got the lowest energy inflation in the developed world over the last year, we still know that Australians are under pressure. That’s why our cost-of-living relief is immediate and ongoing. Peter Dutton is offering no ongoing help.

Independent MP Monique Ryan, who is fighting to retain her seat of Kooyong against the Liberal party is speaking to ABC News Breakfast and gave her opinion on last night’s debate:

I was definitely up taking notes. Look, I thought a bit concerning. Looking – the media people seemed to say it was pretty boring and no-one scored any points but I thought there was some interesting and important things that came out of it. For me, the Leader of the Opposition saying he wouldn’t commit the existence or the reality of climate change is…

Host: I think he’d leave it to the scientists to make that assessment.

Ryan:

Don’t you think he should have had opinion on that as the Leader of the Opposition of the country and a potential Prime Minister? I think it’s a pretty important point. But I also felt that it was a bit concerning that neither of the leaders was able to take a position on AUKUS and the fact that many people in electorates like mine are expressing concerns about our relationship with the US at the moment.

There’s uncertainty around it from an economic and defence point of view. People are saying that they want us to look at that relationship a bit more critically.

Neither the political leaders parties were willing to do that which I think – is an ongoing source of concern within my community.