What you will get if Anthony Albanese wins the election tomorrow - and his cash boost promise
- Labor vowing to slash student debt
Anthony Albanese has made reducing student debt and helping all first home buyers the hallmarks of his re-election campaign.
He has set aside $16billion to slash student debt by 20 per cent and is vowing to enable all first-home buyers get a mortgage with a 5 per cent deposit.
But the Prime Minister is facing fierce resistance from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton who wants to scrap debt relief for students, free TAFE and sweeteners for those who buy an electric car worth up to $91,400.
Mr Albanese is also in the unusual position of being a Labor leader proposing permanent income tax cuts, opposed by the Liberal Party.
Labor is instead opposing the Opposition's plan to temporarily halve fuel excise.
Should be re-elected on Saturday, Mr Albanese would become the first Australian prime minister since John Howard in 2004 to have won at least two elections.
He would also become the first Labor leader since Bob Hawke in 1990 to have been re-elected, and only the third ALP prime minister since Federation to have won back-to-back elections, alongside Gough Whitlam five decades ago.
Here's how the opinion poll favourite is planning to make history on Saturday, and achieve what eluded other post-war Labor PMs Ben Chifley, Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
Former university protester Anthony Albanese has made reducing student debt and encouraging more Australians to buy an electric vehicle the hallmarks of his campaign (he is pictured with fiancée Jodie Haydon campaigning in Brisbane)
Anthony Albanese (pictured in his protesting university days) has set aside $16billion to slash student debt by 20 per cent - something which Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would scrap
Student debt
Mr Albanese, who was a student protester at the University of Sydney during the early 1980s, is focusing on the youth vote with a $16billion plan to reduce student debt by 20 per cent or an average of $5,520 from their Higher Education Contribution Scheme liabilities.
Labor is also planning to lift the repayment threshold from $54,000 to $67,000, calculating it would save someone earning $70,000 about $1,300 a year in repayments.
This is on top of another $3billion plan to reduce student debt by indexing the interest on that debt it to the wage price index or the consumer price index, whichever is lower.
Mr Dutton is vowing to scrap Labor's student debt relief if the Coalition wins Saturday's election, arguing its unfair on tradies who didn't go to university.
The Coalition is also vowing to axe fee-free TAFE, a Labor policy that debuted in January 2023, because only 100,000 people had completed the courses.
It is instead promising to revive a network of 12 Australian Technical Colleges, that existed when John Howard was prime minister, at a cost of $260million.
First-home buyers
The Prime Minister is also seeking to consolidate the youth vote with a plan to guarantee every first home buyer would be able to get into the property market with a five per cent deposit, regardless of their income.
'I want to help young people and first home buyers achieve the dream of home ownership,' he said.
The Prime Minister is also seeking to consolidate the youth vote with a plan to guarantee every first home buyer would be able to get into the property market with a five per cent deposit
Taxpayers would guarantee the balance of the 20 per cent deposit so they are spared from having to pay costly lenders' mortgage insurance.
Unlike the existing Home Guarantee Scheme, these price limits are much higher and reflect mid-point house prices for each capital city from recent CoreLogic data.
In other words, from January 2026, a first-home buyer would be able to buy the typical house in their preferred city and not just a small unit or property in a far, outer suburb.
That means a first home buyer would be able to purchase a Sydney house for $1.5million - the city's median price - instead of $900,000 under the existing limit.
The limit in Brisbane is $1million, up from $700,000.
In Melbourne, it's lower at $950,000, reflecting the decline in Victoria's home prices during the past year, but it's an improvement from $800,000 previously.
Perth has a limit of $850,000, up from $600,000, compared with $900,000 in Adelaide, also up from $600,000.
The limit in Hobart is $700,000, up from $600,000, while in Canberra it will be $1million, up from $750,000. The Northern Territory limit is unchanged at $600,000.
The Albanese government is proposing $268 a year in income tax relief as part of a $17billion plan
Tax cuts
Both sides of politics are opposing each other's tax relief policies.
Labor has declared it won't honour the Coalition's $6billion plan to halve fuel excise to 25.4 cents for a year from July.
Instead, the Albanese government is proposing $268 a year in income tax relief as part of a $17billion plan.
From July 2026, those earning $18,201 to $45,000 would see their marginal tax rate fall from 16 per cent to 15 per cent.
A year later, in July 2027, it would drop to 14 per cent - taking the relief to $536 over two years, as tax cuts for part-time workers flow through to everyone else.
The Opposition has derided it as $5 a week or 70 cents a day worth of relief and is instead proposing a one-off offset of up to $1,200 for 10million Australians earning up to $144,000 in the 2025-26 financial year at a cost of $10billion.
Tax deductions
Taxpayers would be offered an instant tax deduction of $1000, which would automatically cover work expenses.
The reform will allow taxpayers to choose to claim a $1,000 instant tax deduction instead of claiming individual work-related expenses.
Taxpayers won’t need to collect receipts for deductions less than $1,000 and will save on the costs of professional tax advice.
Medicare
If Labor is re-elected, Mr Albanese will commit $204.5 million to launch 1800MEDICARE, a 24/7 nation-wide health advice and after-hours GP telehealth service backed by Medicare.
From January 1, Australians who call the number will be connected to a registered nurse who can provide advice or refer them to another health service.
Anyone who needs urgent GP care for something like an emergency prescription or treatment for a short-term illness or injury can be connected to a free telehealth consultation with a GP between 6pm and 8am.
This could prevent an estimated 250,000 Australians from making an unnecessary trip to an emergency department per year, Labor said.
Penalty rates
A re-elected Albanese Labor Government will legislate to protect penalty rates in awards.
Electric cars
Labor's electric car policies, introduced in 2022, are facing resistance from the Opposition, which is campaigning to scrap them.
Under the current policy, electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles do not attract fringe benefits tax if they fall under the luxury car tax threshold of $91,387 and are purchased through a salary packaging program.
It also enabled those buying an electric car to claim all the costs of servicing a novated lease, along with running costs, giving them a tax benefit.
For an EV around the $45,000 mark, we estimate a worker would pay another $3500 per year without the exemption.
The Coalition is also vowing to scrap Labor's New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, designed to reduce new car emissions by 59 per cent over four years, with enforcement starting in July.
Car companies that sold too many petrol or diesel cars would be penalised, which could see the price of a Ford Ranger ute rise by $6,150, based on Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries modelling.
Housing
Labor is vowing to spend $10billion building up to 100,000 new homes reserved just for first-home buyers by partnering with state developers to fast-track land releases, zoning and planning approvals.
But it is facing resistance from the Coalition, who have vowed to axe Labor's existing $10billion Housing Australia Future Fund to build 40,000 social and affordable homes over five years.
