Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Already, and this is the Daily This is the Daily
ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning, and welcome
to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the thirtieth of April.
I'm Billy fit Simon's.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm Zara Seidler.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
We are now just me days away from the federal election.
I can almost taste that democracy sausage sizzle. And today
we're talking about what voters have said is the biggest
issue influencing their vote this election. No surprises, it is
the cost of living. In fact, nearly two thirds of
young people listed costs of living as their main concern
(00:43):
at this election when asked by TDA in a resolve whole,
So what are the parties proposing to do about it?
We're breaking down exactly that in today's podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Now, Billy, this is one of those policy areas that
I don't necessarily feel like we need to explain the
idea behind. I think anyone who.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Who has a bank account, yeah, who has.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
A bank account, who has to pay for anything, look
at prices. We're all aware that for the last couple
of years, and certainly as we are today, we are
in a cost of living crisis. Prices have gone up.
Everything is very expensive, and so all sides of politics
have really come to this election to say we are
the right people to lead us through this crisis and
(01:29):
to get us out the other end. I want to start, though,
with the two major parties, And the interesting thing on
this is that they actually agree on quite a bit
when it comes to cost of living, which is rare
but it is happening.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, they do agree on quite a lot, and I
think that's where we should start, is what do they
agree on before we get to what they disagree on.
So these are policies that are going to happen no
matter who wins government because both of the major parties
have agreed that they should happen. So as long as
they keep their promises to say happen, I.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Mean that is a big point. We can't over that.
They do need to fulfill their commitments, but hey, we'll
put our beliefs in them for now.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Let's start with supermarket price gouging, which is the practice
of supermarkets charging unreasonably high prices for products. I feel
like over the past couple of years we've heard a
lot about this because ten podcasts, because Coals and wool
Well's the two bigger supermarkets in Australia have both been
accused of price gouging. Important to note that they have
(02:29):
denied those accusations and said that it doesn't happen, but
nevertheless the accusations were still mounted against them. There was
an investigation into these accusations by the consumer watchdog, which
is called the a Triple C and they actually found
no evidence of price gouging by either supermarket. They did
find that Australia's supermarkets are amongst the most profitable in
(02:51):
the world, which is quite interesting, but they said that
that's not because of unreasonably high prices being put onto consumers. Nevertheless,
the main parties have both promised to ban price gouging
to make sure that it never happens, gotcha. Another thing
that they agree on is giving everyone one hundred and
fifty dollars of energy bill relief until the end of
(03:12):
this year, and so that will be automatically applied to
our electricity bills that come every quarter usually, and so
it will be seventy five dollars per bill. One more
thing that they both agree on is they both want
to triple the number of GP visits that are currently
being bulk billed. I feel like that's a term that
you hear a lot, but if you've never been bulk bills,
(03:34):
then you might not know what it means. So it's
basically when the patient has no out of pocket costs
because their visit is covered by Medicare. Some people say
it's free, it's not technically free because it is covered
by Life is a very very good point. So at
the moment, if a GP sees children under sixteen or
(03:54):
concession holders, then the government provides GPS with an extra
payment which is called an incentive payment, and you can
kind of think of it as like this bonus that
the government gives GPS for fully billing their patients. Now,
what Labor announced and the Coalition agreed to match is
to expand that incentive payment so that it can be
(04:15):
accessed by GPS for all Australians. So, like I said,
at the moment it's for those under sixteen or concession holders,
under this policy that both major parties have agreed to,
it will now be open for all Australians. So that
should mean that everyone should see more of their visits
to the GP being bulk billed, And like I said before,
that means that you won't hopefully have any out of
(04:37):
pocket cost when you go to your GP.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Super interesting to hear about those areas where Labor and
the Coalition actually agree. It goes to something you said
earlier in the week about the fact that we do
have these parties really near the center of the political spectrum,
so much so that they can agree on what potentially
is good policy. However, we don't want to overstate this
bipartisanship both sides agreeing, because there is a lot that
(05:02):
they disagree on. So now I want to move to
what both parties are putting forward that's different when it
comes to the cost of living crisis. Let's start with labor.
And I'm laughing because in our notes for this episode,
you told me we were going to start with alphabetical order,
because I think you think that I'm not thinking. So anyway,
We're gonna start with labor.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
To be fair, Labor is alphabetically before the Liberal Party.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Excellent, we've referred to as the Coalition this.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Whole time, before the Coalition.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Okay, great, So Labor okay.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So one of their key policies is a tax cut
for every single tax payer in Australia starting in July
twenty twenty six, so July next year. Now, Labor has
actually already legislated this policy, so they rushed that through
very quickly they did. And so the plan is to
decrease the lowest tax threshold from sixteen cents for every
(05:55):
dollar to fifteen cents from July next year, and then
that would also drop again to fourteen cents in twenty
twenty seven. If I've lost you fair enough, because that
was a whole lot of numbers. Basically, what you need
to know is that from next year, anyone earning above
forty five thousand dollars would receive a tax cut of
two hundred and sixty eight dollars, and then from twenty
(06:17):
twenty seven that would increase to five hundred and thirty
six dollars per year. Following, how are your dollars going? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Absolutely, following probably helps that we have heard this on
repeat in every debate and every time the Prime Minister
gets up. That's not the only part of their cost
of living commitment though, right.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
No, so Zara, you know, at the end of every
financial year when you need to do your tax you're
familiar with that process.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I wasn't sure if that was going to be a
hard question. Yeah, I'm across.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
That, and so no if I do it well, yes,
and so part of what that usually entails is telling
the ATO any work related expenses you may have accumulated
over the year, and then the ATO, if they agree
that those world work related expenses, will then usually deduct
that from your pre tax income and it means that
(07:06):
you could be eligible for a tax return. Now, Labor
has announced that all Australian workers will be eligible for
a tax deduction of one thousand dollars for work related expenses,
so that again will just reduce how much tax you pay. Now,
my understanding of how this works is it basically applies
to you if you are not claiming more than one
(07:28):
thousand dollars of work related expenses. So if usually your
only claim under that, then what this means is you
can just tick a box and you don't need to
find all of the receipts that you usually would need
to provide to the ATO to claim these deductions. So
if you choose that option, that means that you'd be
eligible for that tax deduction. You don't need again any evidence. However,
(07:49):
if you are claiming more than one thousand dollars of
work related expenses. Then you'd still need to go through
the usual process, find all of your receipts and claim
it to the ATO.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Very very I must say from personal experience. All right, Billy.
The last thing I just want to touch on with laborers,
and we've spoken about it many times on this podcast before,
but Labor is proposing to cut hex debts right.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, exactly, and I'll go through this one quickly. So
Labor plans to cut all student debts by twenty percent,
which is estimated to wipe about sixteen billion dollars off loans.
And for the average student loan that we'll see about
five five hundred and twenty dollars cut from the student loan.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Okay, so that's what Labor is proposing to do. Can
we shift gears now and talk about the coalition's plan.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, So the Coalition has said that it would offer
a one off tax cut in the twenty twenty five
twenty six tax return, which, for those playing along at home,
is the upcoming financial year. Now, under this plan, anyone
earning up to one hundred and forty four thousand dollars
would be eligible for a tax cut. Now, to explain
this properly, there are so many numbers, and for the
(08:55):
audio platform, I don't think it benefits anyone by just
listing salary listening. But basically this would be a tax
cut for anyone earning below one hundred and forty four
thousand dollars and anyone earning above that wouldn't be eligible
for it.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Gotcha. And so a tax cut is one part of
their policy platform. I feel like the one that I've
heard Peter Dudden as leader speaking about the most though,
is the Coalition's plan to cut the fuel excise. We
did touch on it a bit earlier this week. Can
you really quickly, though, just rehash what is the Coalition's
(09:29):
plan to cut the fuel excise.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I feel like every single day I wake up and
I see a new photo of someone in the Coalition
at a petrol station. Yeah, this is and all.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Their signs us right outside petrol stations, and it says
the Coalition will cut your petrol.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
This is one of their really big policies. And basically
it means that for every single leter of petrol that
you buy, it will be twenty five cents cheaper under
the Coalition's plan.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I want to move now to something that kind of
overlaps with health a bit, but is still about the
cost of living, and that it's the cost of seeking
help of mental health care. Specifically, the Coalition has announced
that it will increase the number of subsidized mental health
sessions from ten to twenty. It was twenty during COVID
but then got cut back down to ten. What's their policy.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Here, Yeah, so if you don't know anyone who has
a mental health plan which you can get from a GP,
can access up to ten subsidized mental health sessions a year.
So that means that you can see a psychologist for
a cheaper price for up to ten sessions because Medicare
will cover most of the fee, like you just said, Zara,
during the pandemic, when the Coalition was in government, they
(10:39):
increased the number of subsidized sessions you can access per
year from ten up to twenty per year. Then when
Labor got into government, it went back down to ten.
Now the Coalition is saying that if they get into
government again, they would increase it back up to twenty,
and Labor wouldn't and Labor would have brought that out
yet exactly, So what it means is that if Coalition
(11:02):
gets into government, you'd be able to access twenty sessions
with a psychologist per year at a much cheaper rate.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
All right, So we've got a very wide array of
policies here, from fuel to mental health to tax cuts.
Kind of got everything really under the side. Supermarkets, supermarkets exactly.
So that's what the major parties are kind of bringing
to the table really really quickly. Though. What about the Greens,
the biggest minor party in our parliament.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, go through three of their policies that relate to
cost of living. The first thing they want to do
is introduce universal dental into Medicare. They also want to
wipe all student debts, canceling the current help and Hex
loans being paid off by graduates. And on top of that,
they want to make university and tafe free for everyone,
(11:48):
so there would be no fee for you to go
to university.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Which used to be the case.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
It did used to be the case. The last one
that the Greens spoke about is that they also want
to introduce fifty cent public transport around Australia. That would
be a flat rate for you to travel on public transport.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah. Interesting, that's something we've seen at a state level
in queens In Queensland, yeah so certainly haven't heard it
at a federal level, but an interesting one to keep
an eye on. Well, Billy, thank you so much for
taking us through all the proposals to make life a
little bit cheaper for all Ozzies. Depending on what happens
on May third, we might have our fuel cut, or
(12:24):
we might all get a tax cup. We don't know,
wait and find out. Thank you for joining us for
another episode of politics one oh one. We'll be back
tomorrow with another explainer of how our political system works.
But until then, have a great day.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda
bunge Lung Chalcotin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz
acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of
the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to
the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
This