GET AUSTRALIA BACK ON TRACK

PRIORITIES OF A DUTTON COALITION GOVERNMENT

Read about Peter Dutton and the Liberal team’s priorities.

FIGHT COST OF LIVING PRESSURES

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Rein in wasteful government spending that is fuelling inflation and get interest rates down.
• Deliver cheaper energy through our balanced energy plan, including renewables, gas and zero-emissions nuclear.
• Keep supermarkets from exploiting suppliers and consumers through new competition policy, including divestiture powers.
• Strengthen the Food and Grocery Code, increase penalties and establish a Supermarket Commissioner.
• Protect the retirement savings of Australians from unfair new taxes.
• Increase the amount older Australians and veterans can work without reducing pension payments.
• Boost housing supply and help young Australians overcome the deposit hurdle to entering the property market.

BUILD A STRONGER ECONOMY

Despite inheriting a strong economy from the Coalition, Labor has damaged the Australian economy in just three years.
 
Labor’s budgets have seen an additional $347 billion in spending – that’s an additional $33,000 for every Australian household.
 
The International Monetary Fund has projected that in 2025, Australia will have the second highest inflation of any developed country.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Provide lower, simpler and fairer taxes to boost economic growth.
• Turbocharge our mining and resources sector by accelerating approvals and cutting red and green tape.
• Increase export opportunities for Australian farmers and businesses by negotiating new free trade agreements.
• Support Australian businesses to lead in emerging scientific and engineering fields such as advanced manufacturing, medical research, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and space, turning innovation into high-paying jobs and global opportunities.
• Invest in productive infrastructure, such as roads and rail, to unlock greater and more efficient economic activity.
• Bring focus and support back to our neglected regions as central to our nation’s productive capacity.

BACK SMALL BUSINESS

Business conditions in Australia are collapsing.
 
Last year was the worst calendar year on record for business insolvencies. Electricity prices for small businesses have risen by up to 52 per cent.
 
The number of businesses not able to pay their invoices is also at record highs and has more than doubled in the past year.
 
We will be unashamedly pro small business, delivering reforms to help the small business sector grow and get back on track.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Reverse the damaging aspects of Labor’s complex industrial relations reforms, including returning to a simple definition of a casual worker.
• Curtail union militancy in Australian workplaces and reintroduce a tougher Australian Building and Construction Commission.
• Cut red and green tape that is stopping businesses from getting ahead.
• Deliver cheaper, cleaner and consistent energy, through our balanced plan for energy including renewables, gas and zero-emissions nuclear.
• Reduce the tax burden on business expenditure.
• Deliver competition policy to give small businesses a fair go.
• Ensure we train our next generation with the skills required for the workforce of the future.

DELIVER RELIABLE AND AFFORDABLE ENERGY

Labor promised to reduce annual electricity bills by $275. Yet for many Australians, electricity bills have increased by up to $1,000 more than promised.
 
Labor has a ‘renewables only’ approach to our energy system, resulting in high prices and a grid that is increasingly reliant on weather-dependent and unreliable energy sources.
 
Australia is the only country in the top 20 economies that is not using zero-emissions nuclear power, or taking steps to put it in the mix.
 
We will deliver a balanced energy mix with renewables, gas, storage and zero-emissions nuclear.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Deliver lower energy bills for families and businesses.
• Deliver an energy plan that saves Australians up to $263 billion through to 2050 compared to Labor’s plan.
• Establish a civil nuclear program in Australia, including operating nuclear power plants in seven locations across the country.
• Unlock more Australian gas to safeguard our energy security and reliability, through streamlined approvals and by encouraging increased exploration and development.
• Develop gas in key basins, like the Beetaloo, and include new gas generation in the capacity investment scheme.
• Enable the responsible and sustainable growth of renewables as part of our future generation requirements.
• Avoid the overbuild of transmission lines and greenfield industrial solar and wind projects that regional communities don’t want.
• Ensure retiring coal generation is replaced by reliable baseload energy.

FIX THE HOUSING CRISIS

We will act immediately to fix the housing crisis.
 
Through our plan, we will free up more than 100,000 homes in the next five years and will unlock up to 500,000 new homes through new infrastructure funding.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Boost housing supply to alleviate the shortages that have shut new buyers out of the market.
• Fund essential infrastructure like water, power and sewerage at housing development sites.
• Fight inflation to take pressure off interest rates and rents.
• Reduce migration to sensible levels that our housing supply can handle.
• Implement a two-year ban on foreign investors and temporary residents purchasing existing homes in Australia.
• Support first home buyers and older women to overcome the prohibitive challenge of saving for a home deposit by allowing superannuation savings to be used to help build their deposit.
• Address supply chain constraints and invest in skills development.
• Ensure we have an adequate number of skilled visas for those in the construction sector to support our capable local workforce.
• Cut red and green tape to allow builders to get on with the job of building more homes, including freezing further changes to the National Construction Code.
• Restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission to tackle union corruption that has contributed to driving up building costs by up to 30 per cent.
• Maintain the Home Guarantee Scheme, a former Coalition Government initiative to help first home buyers save for a deposit.

REBALANCE OUR MIGRATION SYSTEM

Australia is the greatest multicultural nation in the world, something all Australians should be proud of. However Labor has created an unsustainable migration program with significant consequences.
 
Net migration to Australia reached almost 1 million people in Labor’s first two years – 70 per cent higher than in any previous two-year period. A new person is migrating to Australia every 46 seconds. This is unsustainable and is severely impacting our social and economic infrastructure.

We will rebalance our migration program to restore confidence and integrity, and to relieve pressure on housing and community services.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Urgently address the record levels of migration intake under Labor by reducing the permanent migration intake by 25 per cent.
• Reduce the number of foreign students studying at metropolitan universities.
• Properly plan and invest in our infrastructure and housing needs so that the level of migration into our country is no higher than what is sustainable.
• Secure our borders and restore integrity to the migration system.
• Strengthen our detention laws to keep violent criminals whose visas have been cancelled properly monitored and off the streets.

KEEP AUSTRALIANS SAFE

We will get to work immediately to keep Australians safe against rising threats domestically and internationally.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Make defence capability acquisition decisions to equip our Defence Force with the best platforms they need and deserve at speed and scale.
• Increase the Defence budget to address the cuts and delays by Labor.
• Back the Defence industry sector as a key partner in delivering capabilities.
• Repair strained relationships with our allies such as Israel, and ensure our AUKUS, Quad and Five Eyes relationships continue to deepen.
• Work closely with our Pacific family and Southeast Asian neighbours to secure a safe and prosperous region.
• Progress the Coalition-initiated AUKUS partnership, the greatest defence initiative in a generation.
• Collaborate with law enforcement to deliver coordinated and effective anti-crime measures.
• Build on the success of Operation Sovereign Borders to expand and enhance our border security to stop people smuggling and secure our borders.
• Restore Home Affairs to its rightful place as the pre-eminent domestic national security policy and operations portfolio.
• Tackle the increasing prevalence of drugs in our community.
• Protect our children from emerging threats to their safety and wellbeing online and equip parents with the awareness and tools they need to keep their children safe online.
• Double funding for the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.
• Make it illegal to post material glamourising violence, drug and property crimes to increase a person’s notoriety.

DELIVER QUALITY HEALTHCARE

Our primary focus will be on delivering a world class health system, with better health outcomes in the areas that are in desperate need of investment and reform.
 
That’s why we have already announced we will restore the Coalition’s doubling of Medicare-subsidised mental health sessions from 10 to 20 on a permanent basis and will invest $400 million to re-build the GP workforce and encourage junior doctors to become GPs.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Guarantee the growing funding of Medicare.
• Support Australians to receive healthcare in a timely way wherever they live.
• Grow our GP workforce to address increasing shortages through new incentive payments, entitlements and training support.
• Restore critical Medicare funding to help more Australians suffering from mental health conditions.
• Support Australians to access suicide prevention services.
• Invest in cancer treatments, such as specialist cancer nurses to support Australians with Ovarian Cancer – the deadliest cancer affecting women.
• Invest in cutting-edge medical research to drive treatment breakthroughs and advancements for Australians.
• Deliver new investments in best-practice women’s health issues, such as endometriosis, menopause and peri-menopause.
• Support regional health worker attraction, recruitment and retention initiatives to ensure those living outside our metropolitan centres are not disadvantaged.
• Conduct a review of women-specific health items funded under Medicare and the PBS to ensure the best support is provided to Australian women.
• Reduce unnecessary waste in the health bureaucracy, redirecting it to frontline health services.
• Continue support for the timely access to medicines through community pharmacies.

GROW A STRONGER REGIONAL AUSTRALIA

Life is harder for regional Australians under Labor, who have neglected regional communities across the country.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Invest in roads, rail and local infrastructure for communities and economic production.
• Fund enabling infrastructure to unlock new housing in regional and rural Australia such as water, sewerage and access roads.
• Protect jobs and businesses in traditional local industries like timber, salmon and mining that are under threat from Labor and the Greens.
• End Labor’s live sheep export ban.
• Ensure government regulation is balanced and genuine, not used for activist causes or obstructing our regional industries.
• Protect prime agricultural land from destruction by ideological projects and stop Labor’s water buybacks.
• Develop and support access to export markets and trade opportunities to advance regional businesses.
• Improve access to telecommunications and high speed internet.
• Invest in practical local water infrastructure projects to support agriculture, industry and economic development.
• Deliver essential services that are of high quality regardless of geography.
• Work with local industries to address chronic regional workforce shortages.
• Support regional health worker attraction, recruitment and retention initiatives.
• Back local solutions to provide better access to flexible childcare and education services for families living in regional, rural and remote communities.
• Support existing regional industries to grow and foster new manufacturing and processing opportunities to capitalise on the competitive advantages of our regions.
• Turbocharge our mining and resources sector and lean into growing opportunities like critical minerals by accelerating approvals and cutting red and green tape.
• Unlock economic growth in Northern Australia.

FOCUS ON PRACTICAL ACTION FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS

Labor’s sole focus was the Voice to Parliament referendum. Since Australians voted no, Labor has had nothing to say or do to provide leadership or focus on the serious issues blighting many Indigenous communities across regional and remote Australia.
 
We will focus on practical action for Indigenous Australians.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Focus government efforts on delivering improvements in our most marginalised Indigenous communities.
• Undertake a full audit of all government programs and expenditure in Indigenous affairs to identify failed and/or unnecessary funding that can be reprioritised towards frontline solutions.
• Launch a Royal Commission into Sexual Abuse in Indigenous Communities to shine a light on the horrors of these crimes and identify systemic reforms to be implemented that will end this scourge.
• Reintroduce the Cashless Debit Card for working-aged welfare recipients in consultation with communities, to make sure children are getting the support from their parents that they deserve.
• Provide more housing as a fundamental need of those in Indigenous communities and beyond.
• Boost law and order in Indigenous communities.
• Empower Indigenous communities to use their land for economic development.
• Provide practical solutions to improve health outcomes for Indigenous women and children.

BUILD STRONG AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

Give families greater choice around work and care, including:

• Allowing eligible parents to either receive superannuation contributions on government funded paid parental leave (PPL), or an additional two weeks of funded PPL, or a one-off payment.
• Driving improvements to maintain low out-of-pocket child care costs for families.
• Focusing on providing targeted assistance to families in greatest need.
  
  Deliver a back-to-basics education, including:
• Focusing on teaching young children the basics through explicit instruction, making reading, writing, maths and science a priority.
• Matching dollar-for-dollar agreements already announced by the Federal Government for schools funding.
  
  Combat the scourge of family and domestic violence, including:
• Supporting the extension of emergency payments to support women and children fleeing domestic violence.
• Making it an offence to use mobile phone and computer networks to cause an intimate partner or family member to fear for their personal safety.
• Increasing resources to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.
  
  Deliver quality disability support, including:
• Guaranteeing NDIS funding to support those with permanent and significant disabilities.
• Providing practical support to help those living with a disability overcome barriers and enable them to find and keep employment.
• Eradicating fraud and waste from the NDIS to deliver value for taxpayer dollars.
  
  Deliver independent and dignified aged care, including:
• Funding a sustainable aged care system that is flexible to individual circumstances and provides as much choice as possible.
• Assisting older Australians wanting to access home care packages to stay in their homes for longer
   
  Focus on genuine conservation, including:
• Supporting community driven initiatives to green Australia’s landscapes.
• Supporting practical initiatives to address climate change.
• Ensuring the preservation and protection of our natural wonders like our treasured Great Barrier Reef.
  
  Deliver community focused support, including:
• Support and strengthen youth, community, multicultural and volunteer groups and charities, acknowledging the critical role they play in society.
• Delivering nothing but the best for our veterans.
• Supporting the arts and Australian cultural, sporting and recreational pursuits to foster and enhance community wellbeing.
• Banning gambling advertising during the broadcasting of live sport.

CUT GOVERNMENT WASTE

We will spend what is necessary to deliver high quality services and support to Australians, where they need it most, while scrapping pointless programs and activist-focused positions.
 
Government expenditure will be focused on addressing the challenges faced by Australian families and businesses, such as the cost of living and high-quality health and social services.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Halt the growth of the Canberra based public service.
• Deliver an efficient and responsive public service focused on the needs and priorities of Australians.
• Scrap symbolic and pointless appointments and programs.
• Cut red and green tape that restricts business and increases the cost of living.
• Responsibly manage the budget to take pressure off inflation.