Treasury estimates Coalition tax-free lunch plan at $1.6bn
How much will a plan from the Coalition for tax-free lunches for small businesses cost the federal budget? Treasury is guessing $1.6bn a year.
It’s a big number, and the Coalition hasn’t yet put out its own figure.
But Chalmers says:
If only one-eighth of what is eligible is claimed, if everything is claimed, it goes to more than $10bn a year. But that’s unlikely … the best estimate the Treasury has provided us is $1.6bn a year.
Host Sally Sara also asks Chalmers about the olive branch from the Greens to work with the government on gambling.
Chalmers says he “hasn’t seen” the letter from the Greens, and that Labor works constructively with the crossbench.
There’s also more on how much the government has done on gambling reform in its term. (This is something the PM and Rowland also tend to say).
We continue to work through the recommendations of the [Peta] Murphy inquiry, including when it comes to things like ads, and we know that there are people who would like us to go further and faster when it comes to gambling reform, but the government does already have a very substantial record of dealing with the harms of online gambling in all of the ways
It’s also important to remember here, action on online gambling ads was only one of the recommendations from Murphy’s review.
Her committee also recommended consumer protections for licensed online gambling, a legislated duty of care, and a crackdown on illegal gambling websites.
Key events
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Peter Dutton says he is ‘ready for the election’
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was also doorstopped outside the church service.
Asked if he was ready to lead the country after this year’s election, Dutton said:
I believe very strongly that there’s a mood for change in our country, and we’ve demonstrated over the course of the last three years that we have a stability and we have the depth of experience to make the decisions to keep our country safe and help families recover from a really tough period that many people didn’t predict two-and-a-half years ago, and I fear that it gets worse if the (Labor) government’s re-elected.
I am ready for the election. I believe it’ll be tough. It’ll always be hard fought but I do believe that we can, we can win.
Emily Wind
Taylor claims Labor politicising public service to attack Coalition on tax free lunch policy
As Krishani reported earlier, Treasury is estimating the Coalition’s plan for tax-free lunches for small businesses would cost the federal budget $1.6bn a year.
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, spoke with Sky News earlier about this and continued to defend the Coalition’s policy as “a modest tax cut for small businesses” – adding he would write to the secretary of Treasury and ask “for a full explanation as to why he has done this”.
Taylor argued that Labor was using public servants to “attack, in pure political terms, the opposition.”
The public service is not there to make political attacks on your opponents. The code of conduct is very clear on this. This is an egregious politicisation of a public service, which Labor is bloating for its own purposes.
Taylor also claimed the cost of the Coalition’s policy would be under $250m.
We’ve had it costed. We’ve worked closely with the Parliamentary Budget Office. It’s nothing like what the treasurer is saying. We’ll be putting out the detailed costings in advance of the next election.
The host asked if it was politicisation, though, if Labor has come up with the costs the Coalition hasn’t announced yet? Taylor rejected this and said the Coalition had worked closely with the Parliamentary Budget Office. He doubled down, and claimed:
There’s no there’s no ambiguity about this, we’ve got a Treasury here who is politicising the public service. That’s why he needs to add 36,000 public servants, because he, frankly, is on a mission to turn the public service into an arm of the Labor party.
Emily Wind
Minns stands by Haylen, says having a driver is a ‘privilege’
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says he doesn’t believe it’s acceptable for ministerial drivers to take kids to weekend sport. But he said in this instance the transport minister, Jo Haylen, says her kids were dropped at sport while she was on her way to work.
Haylen has apologised after using her ministerial driver to chauffeur her and some friends to and from a three-hour private lunch on the Australia Day weekend – at a cost of $750.
Speaking to Nine radio earlier this morning, Minns said it was a “privilege” to have a driver “so that you can work longer and harder on behalf of taxpayers in the state”.
That hasn’t happened. I am saying today on the program that we are changing the rules in NSW to ensure that it’s used for official business purposes.
If it’s private use, it’s only for incidental or minor parts of a minister’s job.
Minns also said he doesn’t believe it’s acceptable for drivers to take kids to weekend sport.
In relation to that, I asked and said, ‘that’s clearly not acceptable’. And her response to me was, ‘I was going to work. Yes, my child dropped off at sport on the way, but I was going to work’.
‘Worst, sloppiest policy’: Albanese on free lunches
The prime minister is having a go at the opposition over their tax-free lunch policy for small businesses.
The policy would allow small businesses to tax deduct up to $20,000 for “meals and entertainment”, which the treasurer this morning has been saying would cost about $1.6bn.
The PM says it shows the opposition isn’t “fit” to lead.
This is the worst, sloppiest policy put forward by any opposition that I’ve seen in my entire time since I’ve been in Parliament, and that was a while ago. This shows they are simply not fit as an alternative government. They have opposed every cost of living measure, and this is all they’ve come up with.
Remember when I said the church service is the calm before the storm? Looks like the storm is starting a little earlier than expected.
Hate crimes legislation to be debated this week
In response to the spate of antisemitic attacks around the country, the government and opposition have said they will work this fortnight to pass news laws that would criminalise speech that incites violence on vulnerable people and vulnerable groups.
The opposition has said they want the legislation to specifically state places of worship, which the government says is already broadly included in the legislation.
Anthony Albanese says:
I’ve been talking about the need to protect places of worship very clearly. I’ve made the government’s position on that very clear.
The prime minister is speaking after church service this morning
The government’s still trying to focus on cost of living, the biggest issue most of us are facing at the moment, and one that will feature significantly in parliament and during the election campaign. Anthony Albanese begins with a message of “hope”:
We do need hope and we need optimism and, as we begin the parliamentary year, that’s precisely what I have – optimism for the year ahead and optimism that we can create a better future for Australia. If we seize the opportunities that are before us, we begin the parliamentary year with inflation falling, wages rising and with unemployment low.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian Liberal party room to meet for the first time since leadership spill
Victorian parliament also resumes today, which means the Liberal party room will be meeting for the first time since a spill last year, which saw Brad Battin take on the leadership of the opposition.
It will be a big day for the Berwick MP, who will take his place at the leadership table during question time with his new deputy, Sam Groth. Hawthorn MP John Pesutto, who lost the leadership in December, returns to the backbench, while in the upper house Moira Deeming rejoins the Liberals after a stint on the crossbench.
The Greens are gearing up to wedge Battin’s leadership, with a motion on abortion set to be introduced in the upper house on Wednesday. They will also second read their bill to enshrine abortion rights into the constitution, which would require a super majority of the upper house.
The Greens’ leader, Ellen Sandell, says she wrote to Battin regarding his position on the bill several weeks ago but he hasn’t replied. According to her, Pesutto had “expressed his personal support for abortion and said he would put it to a conscience vote”.
Sandell accused Battin of “lurching the party to the right”:
People deserve to know where their leaders sit when it comes to their reproductive rights and access to essential healthcare.
Meanwhile, the premier, Jacinta Allan, is ramping up the pressure on him to support her anti-vilification legislation. On Monday she described him as an “extreme rightwing leader”.
The Liberal party did not respond when asked for a response to her comments. They will be voting on their position on the bill on Tuesday morning. Several Jewish community groups are unhappy with the bill’s “genuine political purpose” defence.
On the Labor side, the newly shuffled cabinet will face their first grilling, including Jaclyn Symes, the new treasurer who unusually sits in the upper house, and the attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny.
And Allan appears to be backing away from bail laws she introduced just six months ago.
It will all set the tone for the parliamentary year ahead and I’ll be there with updates as it unfolds.
Crossbench continues push for gambling reform
We know the government won’t be going ahead with gambling reform before the election, but it’s something the crossbench will still bring up and try to push this fortnight.
Lambie and Pocock are asked about it on RN Breakfast and are getting pretty fired up.
Pocock says:
It’s pretty astonishing that we had the [Peta] Murphy review, a landmark report that the parliament unanimously backed, no dissenting remarks from anyone, and said we need a full ban on all gambling advertising and then 31 other recommendations. This is a public health issue. We needed to deal with it as such, and we’ve seen the prime minister listen to Peter V’landys rather than Peter Murphy.
Lambie says the major parties “don’t give a stuff” about the next generation of young Australians.
And as we brought you earlier, the Greens have offered to support the government to pass gambling reforms this week.
Question mark on electoral reform bill
Crossbench senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock are on RN Breakfast, saying neither was consulted over summer on the electoral reform bill.
The bill would cap donations and spending for candidates, and increase transparency for donations, but the caps have been heavily criticised by the crossbench (which they say will “entrench” the two-party system).
Lambie says:
I don’t know who Don Farrell, [is] consulting with but it must have been the faerie … because it certainly wasn’t us.
Instead of reducing your cost of living out there, they want to come and make sure that they can hold power up here for years to come with their electoral reforms. That’s what they’re doing … Nothing’s changed, 2025 you know, a new year, same rubbish.
Josh Butler
As Krishani has been bringing you, Jim Chalmers has been pinballing around the press gallery doing multiple media rounds to criticise the Coalition’s policy for tax-deductible business lunches – which, according to costings that the government asked Treasury to prepare, would cost between $1.6bn and $10bn per year.
Chalmers claimed the policy was at risk of being “rorted” by businesses claiming personal food expenses.
This is Peter Dutton’s “meals and entertainment” policy, which would allow businesses and bosses to tax deduct up to $20,000 per year. Dutton and the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, billed it as a policy which could help firms attract new clients with business lunches, or allow bosses to reward workers after a hard week – but it attracted confusion last week over what expenses would be eligible, with differing reports on whether work parties, golf days or football matches could be put on the public purse.
Dutton later clarified that it was meals only (but then why was it billed as a “meal and entertainment expenses” policy in the opposition’s own media release?) and said the Coalition would release costings down the track.
Chalmers overnight said: “In the absence of opposition costings, the government asked Treasury to cost a proposal based on parameters made publicly available by the Coalition”.
The Liberals’ taxpayer-funded long lunches policy would smash the budget. This is why they won’t come clean on costings or cuts.
He said the Treasury department had forecast the policy would cost $1.6b annually – but that “this becomes more than $10bn a year if all eligible businesses claimed what they’d be entitled to”.
If take up and average claims are higher than expected or if businesses rort the system by illegitimately claiming food and entertainment that is personal, not for business, the cost of the policy would increase substantially.
Looping back to the shadow infrastructure minister, Bridget McKenzie, on the Today show this morning.
She and Amanda Rishworth weighed in on the controversy around the NSW transport minister, Jo Haylen, using a ministerial car for personal use in multiple instances.
McKenzie said:
When you breach ministerial standards under the Westminster system, you should resign. It is actually about keeping faith and trust with the Australian public. And if she has breached the ministerial code in NSW, then she should. It’s an immense privilege to serve the public as we do, and we need to take all the supports that are given to us to help us do that, to use them wisely and efficiently.
No rules were broken in Haylen’s use of a publicly funded car and driver, the NSW premier, Chris Minns, has said but those regulations were likely to be changed after the “bad judgment”.
McKenzie had a brush with the federal ministerial standards back in 2020 and resigned from the frontbench over the “sports rorts” controversy, when it was found she skewed community sports grants towards marginal seats.
Rishworth said it’s important politicians “keep faith” with taxpayers and use their privileges “wisely”.
Politicians gather at Canberra church for pre-sitting service
The prime minister, opposition leader and others are meeting this morning at a church in Canberra, for the parliamentary ecumenical service.
It’s a tradition held on the morning of the first sitting day of each year, and the prime minister will make some remarks.
It’s generally the calm before the storm.
Treasury estimates Coalition tax-free lunch plan at $1.6bn
How much will a plan from the Coalition for tax-free lunches for small businesses cost the federal budget? Treasury is guessing $1.6bn a year.
It’s a big number, and the Coalition hasn’t yet put out its own figure.
But Chalmers says:
If only one-eighth of what is eligible is claimed, if everything is claimed, it goes to more than $10bn a year. But that’s unlikely … the best estimate the Treasury has provided us is $1.6bn a year.
Host Sally Sara also asks Chalmers about the olive branch from the Greens to work with the government on gambling.
Chalmers says he “hasn’t seen” the letter from the Greens, and that Labor works constructively with the crossbench.
There’s also more on how much the government has done on gambling reform in its term. (This is something the PM and Rowland also tend to say).
We continue to work through the recommendations of the [Peta] Murphy inquiry, including when it comes to things like ads, and we know that there are people who would like us to go further and faster when it comes to gambling reform, but the government does already have a very substantial record of dealing with the harms of online gambling in all of the ways
It’s also important to remember here, action on online gambling ads was only one of the recommendations from Murphy’s review.
Her committee also recommended consumer protections for licensed online gambling, a legislated duty of care, and a crackdown on illegal gambling websites.