Taylor's time warp
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor says he wants to return to the Coalition's core strengths of fiscal discipline and smaller government — but it's unclear where the cuts in spending would come from.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has spent the last two years cooking up a new image of Labor as prudent financial managers who can tackle short-term challenges while preparing for a new future. His opposition counterpart Angus Taylor is now going for the economic equivalent of the jugular.
That may be because one of the most enduring perceptions in politics is that Coalition governments are better at holding the nation’s purse strings. Whether this is true depends on your perspective, but Taylor is ready to push it once more.
“Labor’s only answer [to economic challenges] has been for a big spending, big government and big Australia approach,” Taylor said at the National Press Club today, reiterating his plans for a “back to basics economic agenda”.
While many of the journalists gathered were determined to ask questions about the Coalition's yet to be detailed nuclear policy, the shadow treasurer focused much of his speech on examples of what he says is unnecessary and wasteful spending by the Albanese government.
