Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

Well, they've been out to lunch for three years, and now they want taxpayers to pay for the bosses' lunches. A good economic policy should boost growth, boost fairness and put downward pressure on inflation. But this policy announced by the opposition does none of those things.

We should have got a bit of a hint of the Leader of the Opposition's economic capacity when he ran to roll Malcolm Turnbull back in 2018. It's been a little forgotten since then, but he had a big policy idea then, and that was to smash a big hole in the GST. It was a policy so bad that it was described by Scott Morrison as an 'absolute budget blower' and by Malcolm Turnbull as 'very expensive'. The Leader of the Opposition's economic chops have been summed up in Lech Blaine's Quarterly Essay, where he wrote as follows:

Dutton is the paperback version of Howard: the same message but less weight. Economics is not his emotional priority, beyond a tribal allegiance to tax loopholes for the rich; penalties for the poor; and hostility to trade unions. This is why he spends most of the time fighting culture wars. His grievances are well practised and sincerely held. But the moment he moves off his preferred turf, Dutton becomes clumsy and unconvincing.

Lech Blaine went on to interview former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who said—

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