Friday, 1 July 2016

Election 2016: Where the parties stand on the big issues

Extract from ABC News

Here's what you need to know about how the major parties' policies stack up. Or see where the parties (including the Greens) differ on policy.

Updated Wed at 9:46pm

The economy

The economy is the key issue for voters at virtually every election.
It is traditionally seen as a strength for the Coalition, which is campaigning on its 'jobs and growth' budget in 2016, centred on a cut to the company tax rate — initially for small businesses, before gradually being phased in for the wider business sector.
While recent Labor campaigns have sought to stick closely to the Coalition on the economy to minimise any perceived weakness, this time Bill Shorten has come out strongly, rejecting the majority of the company tax cut and pocketing the almost $50 billion in savings.
Labor is also sticking to its plan to take on one of the sacred cows of tax policy — negative gearing — restricting it to new dwellings with the aim to net more than $30 billion over the next decade.
Gone are the days of the election promise of a quick return to surplus, with the budget not predicted to be back in the black until 2020–21. Labor says it would return to surplus in the same timeframe, but deficits would be about $16.4 billion bigger before then. The Opposition, however, says the Government is relying on budget changes that will never pass the Parliament.

Tax cuts

The budget includes plans for the small business tax rate to drop 1 per cent to 27.5 per cent this year, and for a small business to be redefined as having turnover of less than $10 million, five times the current level to qualify.
By 2023–24 all companies big and small will enjoy the 27.5 per cent rate, and three years later it will drop to a flat 25 per cent.
The Government is also providing a personal income tax cut for middle-income earners by increasing the upper limit for the middle tax bracket from $80,000 to $87,000.
It has also scrapped the 2 per cent temporary deficit levy for high-income earners.
Labor is not going to stand in the way of the personal income tax breaks for middle income earners, but would reinstate the 2 per cent deficit levy for high income earners for a decade if elected.
Labor has backed the cut to the company tax rate for businesses with a turnover of less than $2 million, but does not support cutting taxes for bigger businesses.

Superannuation tax concessions

The Coalition and Labor plan to increase the tax on contributions for those earning more than $250,000 a year, from 15 to 30 per cent.
For people 60 and over, the Government would limit the pot of superannuation they can hold where the earnings (ie. profits from investments) go tax free. Balances above $1.6 million would go into a separate pot where earnings would be taxed at 15 per cent.
There's currently a $180,000 a year limit on after-tax contributions (eg extra money you put into super from your wages, after paying income tax).
People put after-tax income into super because earnings are taxed at 15 per cent — often lower than the tax they'd pay investing it elsewhere.
The Government would reduce this to a $500,000 lifetime cap. This rule would take into account all after-tax contributions since 2007.
People who have already contributed more than $500,000 would not be penalised.
Labor has criticised the Government's plan to limit concessional contributions and cap the amount of tax-free super savings, saying it is retrospective.
Superannuation earnings for retirees in the pension phase are currently tax free, but the ALP would tax annual earnings above $75,000 at 15 per cent. Labor said its proposal, costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, would raise $14 billion over a decade.
In the last week of the campaign Labor announced it would bank $2.9 billion in savings from the Government superannuation changes. It said it would not necessarily adopt the Coalition's exact policies, promising to consult on the measures once coming to office.

Negative gearing

Labor has proposed restricting negative gearing to new homes from July 2017, and to halve the Capital Gains Tax discount on new investments to 25 per cent. It would grandfather existing investments.
The Government has promised not to touch either negative gearing or CGT.

Health

The Coalition went into the 2013 election "on a unity ticket" with Labor, to neutralise a campaign that Tony Abbott would begin cutting health funding once elected.
However the 2014 budget saw the ticket torn up, with hospital funding agreements the states and territories made under former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd to be wound back from 2017, saving a massive $50 billion over eight years.
Also announced was a $7 co-payment to visit the GP, which became one of the least popular measures in Joe Hockey's 2014 budget, and was eventually scrapped.
The Turnbull Government recently made a short-term hospital funding agreement with the states, but controversial plans to freeze the Medicare rebate remain in place, and have drawn the ire of groups such as the Royal Australian College of GPs and the Australian Medical Association.

GP rebate freeze

In this year's budget, the Government announced it would continue the indexation freeze for all Medicare schedule fees until 2020.
While not a direct cut to GPs' income, over time GPs would earn relatively less while their costs would increase.
The freeze on rebates was initially put in place for four years in 2014 after the Government's unpopular $7 GP co-payment was dropped.
The Opposition has criticised the rebate freeze, calling it a GP tax by stealth. In the second week of the campaign, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten announced Labor's plans to end the freeze, and restore indexation of the MBS from 1 January 2017. Labor said it would cost $2.4 billion by 2019-20, and $12.2 billion over a decade.

Hospital funding

At the COAG meeting in April 2016, leaders signed a Heads of Agreement for public hospital funding from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2020 ahead of consideration of longer-term arrangements.
This will see the Commonwealth providing an estimated additional $2.9 billion in funding for public hospital services, with growth in Commonwealth funding capped at 6.5 per cent a year.
Opposition health spokesman Catherine King said the $2.9 billion was well short of the $7.9 billion in additional funding the Liberals committed to in the 2013 election.
The Opposition has promised to boost hospital funding by $2 billion over four years, paying for half the growth in hospital costs. Over four years, this restores cuts made in the 2014 Hockey budget. But it does not go close to restoring the $57 billion funding cut over the medium-term.

Costs of scans and pathology

The Government announced it would scrap an incentive paid to pathology companies to encourage them to bulk bill patients. This was a top up payment – in addition to regular bulk-billing payments - started under the former Labor government.
Health Minister Sussan Ley said incentives are paid direct to the pathology or diagnostic provider, not the patient. "The bulk billing incentive has cost taxpayers $1.3 billion over five years, yet again has clearly failed to improve bulk billing rates beyond natural growth."
In May, the Government and Pathology Australia reached agreement, saying clinics would continue bulk-billing in return for Government intervention to lower their rents.
The Opposition strongly opposes getting rid of the incentive and has vowed to reverse the changes, if elected. Health spokesman Catherine King said pathologists and doctors were against removing the incentive, saying it was a bad outcome for patients, which could result in patients becoming sicker.

Private health insurance

The Government has instituted a major review of private health insurance.
Health Minister Sussan Ley said she wanted greater transparency around private health insurance policies, including reviewing so-called "junk" products, confusing terminology and hidden payments for consumers.
A spokesman for Ms Ley said the Government was committed to retaining the private health insurance rebate.
On the issue of private health insurance, the Opposition has criticised the Government's approval of increases in health insurance premiums. It has also said it would stop the private health insurance rebate going towards so-called 'junk' policies, policies that only cover public hospital treatment and natural therapies.
Greens leader Richard di Natale wants the private health insurance rebate scrapped, saying new figures from the Parliamentary Budget Office show it could save the Federal Government as much as $10 billion over the next four years.

Changes to primary care

The Government's announcement of 'health-care homes' is a major change to how primary care will be delivered.
Patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes will be able to enrol with a particular GP. Doctors will receive quarterly funding to pay for the patient's medical and allied health services.
Health Minister Sussan Ley said the initiative was designed to ensure patients did not end up slipping through the cracks with multiple doctors and no continuity of care.
Opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King has criticised the lack of detail in the announcement. Ms King said that Labor began work on patient-centred medical homes when in Government, describing them as conceptually sound but difficult in practice.

Families

Since 2014, the Coalition has proposed a number of cuts and changes to welfare payments in a bid to save money, most notably in the 2014 budget, which saw widespread backlash to the proposals.
Along with tightening up welfare payments, the Government also scrapped Tony Abbott's maternity leave scheme, which would have seen mothers paid at their full income for six months.
However many of its attempted measures, along with its reforms to child care (which were a key sweetener in the 2015 budget), remain stalled in the Senate, with the childcare reforms delayed for another year in the 2016 budget.
Labor says the policies put forward by the Coalition are unfair and target those who can least afford it.
With an annual welfare bill of more than $150 billion (about a third of the federal budget), and most payments growing at a faster rate than inflation, the Coalition has consistently argued the costs need to come down.
Labor acknowledges the complicated web of payments is in need of reform, but fundamentally it believes the existing welfare system is good.

Family tax benefits

Family Tax Benefit A is a means-tested payment for families with dependent children between the ages of 0 and 19. The payment is worth a maximum of $234 per child per fortnight but depends on income and the child's age.
Family Tax Benefit B is a means-tested payment for single-parent families and families with one income of $100,000 a year or less. It is worth a maximum of $153 per family a fortnight but depends on the age of the youngest child and the income of any secondary income earner in the family.
From July 1, 2016, Family Tax Benefit B will be scrapped for couples when their youngest child turns 13. Single parents over the age of 60 and grandparent carers will continue to get this payment until their youngest child turns 18.
The Coalition has promised to increase the maximum rate payment by $10 a fortnight on Family Tax Benefit A if Parliament passes legislation to scrap the annual supplements, which are top-up payments sent out at the end of every financial year, once parents have lodged tax returns.
The FTB-A supplement is worth about $720 per child per year, while the FTB-B supplement is worth about $350 per family per year. The Coalition aims to gradually phase out these supplements by 2018, arguing they are no longer needed.
Labor would retain these supplements, but would halve the Family Tax Benefit Part A supplement for families earning $100,000 a year or more. Labor has also opposed changes to Family Tax Benefit A, but it has agreed to scrap Family Tax Benefit B.

Childcare

The Government has pledged to overhaul the sector with a $3 billion package, which will see subsidies streamlined into one means-tested payment.
The lowest-income families would receive the highest subsidy, covering up to 85 per cent of costs. The subsidy gradually tapers to 50 per cent for families earning about $170,000 a year or more.
Families earning up to $185,000 a year would have no annual cap on the amount of rebate provided. Families earning above this amount would be eligible for up to $10,000 in capped assistance per child per year.
It includes an activity test that both parents must meet before they qualify for support, and all the Coalition's changes are contingent on cuts to family tax benefits to pay for the package, with the implementation delayed until July 2018.
The Opposition is keeping the current system, but has also committed $3 billion extra, promising to provide relief to families from January 2017, 18 months earlier than the Government.
Under Labor's policy, the cap on the childcare rebate will be lifted from $7,500 to $10,000, and the childcare benefit will also increase by 15 per cent, providing families with up to an extra $31 a week.
Labor will also provide $160 million to increase childcare and after-school care places in areas where there is a high demand, and boost funding for services that cater for Indigenous children.

Paid Parental Leave

Currently primary carers who meet a work and residency test and earn less than $150,000 per year are entitled to receive up to 18 weeks of parental leave pay at the minimum wage ($657/week).
This is on top of the paid parental leave they receive from their employer, and while the Coalition has changed its policy several times, its latest plan is to cut back the existing scheme and instead 'top up' the paid parental leave already provided by employers to ensure new parents receive a total of 18 weeks of paid leave.
Under this change, about 79,000 parents would have their payments reduced or cut altogether.
Labor has proposed no changes to the existing policy.

Education

Education is traditionally a strength for Labor and the Opposition Leader has gone out early with his key policy announcements in this area.
Labor implemented the Gonski needs-based funding model under former prime minister Julia Gillard by striking deals with four states and the ACT.
Under this model every student receives a base amount of funding, with extra allocated for students with special needs or from disadvantaged backgrounds.
While the Coalition went to the last election promising a "unity ticket" with Labor on education funding, shortly after taking power it spectacularly broke this promise.
In 2014, the then education minister Christopher Pyne said he was scrapping the Gonski plan and would renegotiate deals with the states and territories.
The Government also moved to deregulate university fees, trying twice to get the legislation through Parliament.
When the new Education Minister Simon Birmingham took over in September 2015 full fee deregulation was put on hold, and abandoned altogether in May this year.
However about $2 billion in cuts to higher education remained on the books in the 2016 budget.

Gonski funding

The Coalition will fund the first four years of Gonski and has committed another $1.2 billion from 2018 to 2020.
The money will be tied to programs to improve student performance and results.
Year 1 students will be tested for literacy and numeracy skills to identify students who need more help.
Parents will be given annual reports that show students' results compared to national standards and there will be a minimum standard set for literacy and numeracy skills for Year 12 students.
Labor has committed to fund the full six-year Gonski plan, including the final two years at a cost of $4.5 billion over 2018 and 2019.
Labor's total package will cost $37 billion over a decade and includes a focus on more individual attention for students, better training for teachers, and more funding for students with disabilities.
The Opposition says it will pay for the plan by targeting multi-national tax avoidance, increasing the excise on cigarettes, and cutting back on superannuation concessions for high-income earners.
The Government is also focused on teacher training, renewing the national curriculum, and giving local communities more say over schools.

Higher education funding

Labor has pledged to cap vocational education loans to students who attend private colleges. Loans will be capped at $8,000 per student, per year, which Labor says will save $6 billion over the next 10 years. The Government is undertaking a widespread review of the VET sector.
The Government's previous policy to fully deregulate university fees has been dumped. Instead the Minister has released a discussion paper canvassing alternative options. The consultation will not be completed before the election, so the Government will not take a higher education policy to the election.

Environment

The environment has been one of the key battlegrounds in the past two elections, with Tony Abbott's attack on Julia Gillard's carbon tax at the heart of his election pitch in 2013.
Despite Malcolm Turnbull's previous preference for an emissions trading scheme, which saw him rolled as leader in 2009, since becoming prime minister he has maintained the Government's direct action policy.
The carbon tax that was designed to address climate change was seen as a key reason for the downfall of the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd government, and consequently, neither party wants to impose a fixed price on carbon.
Both sides of politics have come up with different ways of attempting to reduce emissions while protecting the public and big international companies from feeling too much financial pain.

Climate change

Both parties agree climate change is a threat and have committed to cutting Australia's emissions by 5 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020. But from here they differ.
The Coalition's goal is to cut by 26–28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. Labor wants to cut emissions by 45 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Their strategies to address climate change also differ. The Coalition opted for a "direct action" approach in which $2.55 billion in taxes is paid to companies to undertake projects which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Labor wants to introduce two emissions trading schemes — one for electricity generators and one for big industry. Labor says neither is expected to have a large impact on consumer prices.

Renewable energy

The Coalition introduced the mandatory renewable energy target, which was then raised by Labor under Kevin Rudd.
The Government and Labor agreed to scale back the target last year, but the Opposition has announced it would seek to increase it again if elected.
The Coalition has promised more than 20 per cent of electricity will come from renewable sources by 2020. Labor is aiming for 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

Forests

The timber industry in the past has been a key election issue because it can swing key marginal seats, both in the regions where timber workers are, and in the inner-city, where the environmental vote is important.
The Regional Forest Agreements were 20-year plans for the timber industry brokered by the Howard government.
As they are due to expire, the Coalition has said they will roll them over for another 20 years. Environmentalists oppose this.
Labor is torn between protecting inner-city seats and pleasing their CFMEU members, but broadly supports the continuation of the forest agreements in their current form.

Great Barrier Reef

The reef supports billions in tourism jobs but is vulnerable to the actions of industries such as farming and coal.
Actions to protect the reef usually attempt to strike a balance between those opposing industries.
Prior to the election the Liberal Party committed $210 million to tackle issues on the reef including reducing run-off and managing coral bleaching events.
The Coalition will also divert $1 billion over 10 years from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation for loans for clean energy projects that also improve water quality by reducing run-off of pollutants and fertiliser and limiting discharge from sewage treatment plants.
Labor has announced a $500 million fund to help protect the Great Barrier Reef through better research, co-ordination and environmental programs, of which $377 is new money.
Labor would spend $100 million on research by the CSIRO, universities and other institutes, $300 million on environmental programs to reduce nitrogen and sediment run-off and up to $100 million on better management of the reef.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt is currently facing a court case brought by the Australian Conservation Foundation that challenged Mr Hunt's approval of the Adani Carmichael coal mine, alleging he failed to consider the impacts burning coal from the mine would have on climate change and the reef.
The Queensland Labor Government has approved the Adani coal mine, but Bill Shorten has stated that if elected a Federal Labor government won't provide federal resources to assist the mine.
Neither major party supports a moratorium on coal mines, which a group of leading climate scientists called for last year as needed to halt the increase in global warming.

NBN

Once the jewel in the crown of the Rudd and Gillard governments, the NBN became a centrepiece of the Abbott pitch for government — aided by the then opposition communication spokesman, and now Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
Abbott and Turnbull proposed a "faster, cheaper" model, which, instead of offering optical fibre direct to Australian homes, would see NBN largely rolled out to street 'nodes', with the final connection to residences made through the existing copper network.
The Coalition claimed the new NBN would cost $29.5 billion, as opposed to Labor's $44.9 billion, and deliver speeds of 25mbps to the country by 2016, well ahead of Labor's scheme.
Instead the scheme has blown out in cost to $56 billion, and is not expected to be finished until 2020, more than four years behind schedule.
While the Prime Minister has argued that Labor's scheme will cost $73 billion, industry experts say it would have offered far greater speeds, and be future-proofed in a way the current system is not.

Over the course of the Abbott and Turnbull governments, the Coalition's NBN policy has shifted from a Fibre to the Node (FTTN) focus, to a multi-technology mix (MTM), which includes some fibre to the premises (FTTP), using the Optus coaxial cable network, as well as a satellite network, and the copper network.
The Government has also capped the amount of equity it will contribute to the NBN rollout at $29.5 billion, which could have implications for how the project is rolled out if costs continue to increase.
Labor says it will commit to existing contracts for FTTN, including using the Optus network, but allow up to 2 million extra households and businesses to connect to the much faster FTTP. People already on the map to receive the FTTN option will still get it, but those customers without an existing contract will be able to get fibre to their houses and businesses.
Labor would cap its spending in the initial phase at $57 billion, $1 billion more than the Coalition's cap. The ALP says its scheme would be finished by mid-2022 – 18 months later than the Coalition's NBN is set to be completed.
If it is elected, Labor will commission Infrastructure Australia to consider the options available to upgrade customers on FTTN for a second rollout.
Labor has announced it will construct a "fibre link" for the west coast of Tasmania if elected.

Rural and regional affairs

Traditionally a stronghold for the Coalition, regional Australia has seen the rise of a movement that aligns farmers with environmental concerns on issues such as coal seam gas and mining.
The major parties remain divided on issues such as how to fix mobile phone and internet black spots, whether to publish a foreign-owned farmland register, and how best to manage drought relief funding.
The Coalition has allocated $160 million to fix mobile phone black spots and pledged a further $60 million, if re-elected. It has been under pressure to spend more on the scheme. Labor maintains it will fix black spots through deals made with the telcos in the National Broadband Network rollout.
The Federal Government’s proposal to increase income tax paid by backpackers has been put on hold for six months while a review is conducted. Labor has said it will consult with the agriculture sector on the issue if it is elected.
Labor pushed the land management debate from the state level into the federal arena by announcing it would use Commonwealth power to restrict broad-scale land clearing. Land clearing laws are currently a state responsibility, and the Coalition says it will stay that way if it is re-elected.
Both parties have copped criticism from farmers for their lack of a comprehensive national drought plan. The Coalition has relied on income support payments, concessional loans, and various tax incentives designed to "help farmers help themselves". Labor has attacked the Coalition's loans scheme but has not offered an alternative policy. It would prefer to see water savings achieved through innovation and more research on soil.
Both major parties agree that better infrastructure leads to more jobs in regional areas. There is bipartisan support for a 1,700-kilometre direct rail freight line to move goods from Melbourne to Brisbane in less than 24 hours.
Both major parties have had to tread carefully when balancing their support for mining projects with managing the fierce opposition to them in some farming communities.

Black spots

Mobile phone black spots and slow internet are a huge problem for regional communities, who have warned poor coverage is a serious safety issue and hurts local businesses.
Stories of frustration include everything from people not being able to receive PINs when they are doing online banking, to farm accidents where injury or death might have been avoided had there been phone reception.
There are 6,000 identified black spots across the country, and the Government's Black Spot program aims to fix at least 499 of them.

Drought

Successive generations of drought policy have been tried, reviewed, found wanting and replaced, in a process that is depressingly circular.
The same questions have been asked for decades: is drought a natural disaster, just part of life in Australia, or both? To what extent should governments step in to help drought-stricken farmers?
In 2013, the former Labor government introduced concessional loans for farmers and the Coalition went on to tweak and expand those, saying as much as $250 million would be made available annually for drought-affected farmers over the next 11 years.
Currently, farmers in parts of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are battling drought, with some enduring their fifth year of it.
Despite almost $1 billion in loans having been allocated as part of the Government's drought policy, farmers have been slow to take that up. They argue the eligibility criteria are too strict, and the process too bureaucratic.
Farmer complaints were recently backed up by the National Audit Office, which issued a scathing report that declared both the Labor and Coalition concessional loans schemes were rushed through, poorly planned and inconsistently implemented.

Infrastructure

The Coalition's three Free Trade Agreements have opened up and increased market access to China, Japan and Korea, but farmers say a lack of infrastructure (rail, roads and water) increases the cost of production, particularly in northern Australia, and makes it harder for them to compete internationally.
The farm sector has lobbied for decades for an inland rail network to make it cheaper and faster to get goods from farms to ports. There is bipartisan support for a 1,700-kilometre direct rail freight line to move goods from Melbourne to Brisbane in less than 24 hours.
Farmers argue that the costs of production in Australia are among the highest in the world and that they cannot compete with cheaper overseas competitors unless infrastructure improves.

Foreign Ownership

Foreign investment in farmland has been the subject of heated and widespread community debate since it rose to prominence in the last federal election campaign.
The Coalition has refused to publish its long-awaited register of foreign-owned farmland, despite pledging greater transparency before the last election. Instead, the Australian Tax Office will release occasional summaries of information in order to protect the privacy of investors. This move angered the national farm lobby, which supports foreign investment and wants the register made public in order to "inform debate" about the issue.
The Coalition has already lowered the threshold for Foreign Investment Review Board scrutiny of farmland sales to Japan, South Korea and China from $242 million to a cumulative $15 million, and $50 million for all other countries. It also lowered the trigger for scrutiny of agribusiness sales to $53 million. Labor wants to increase the threshold for farmland sales to China, Japan and South Korea to $50 million, and remove screening of agribusiness sales worth more than $55 million.

Mining versus agriculture

Political tensions have have arisen where mining projects have been pursued on prime agricultural land. One of the most controversial examples is the Chinese-owned Shenhua Watermark coal mine planned for the NSW Liverpool Plains, in the Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce's electorate.
Mr Joyce, and indeed the Nationals, strongly support mining, but not on fertile farmland like the Liverpool Plains.
Mr Joyce has publicly criticised the project and famously declared "the world's gone mad" when Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt conditionally approved the mine. Mines like Shenhua's are largely a state issue, making it difficult for Federal Ministers to intervene.

Water reform in the Murray-Darling

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan remains a heated issue in river communities, particularly in northern Victoria. It is likely to be an election issue in the seat of Murray, where the popular Liberal MP Sharman Stone, an outspoken critic of the plan, is retiring.
The Coalition and Labor, and the Basin states, remain committed to implementing the controversial plan, which removes water from irrigated farming in favour of the environment.
But Senate crossbenchers have called for the plan to be paused, or even scrapped, after hearing testimony from river communities that it has created a "man-made drought". It is likely to be a significant issue in the campaign for the communities directly affected, but is not likely to be an issue that will see seats change hands.

Land clearing

While it has long been a hot political issue for Australian farmers, land clearing regulation has been a battle fought at the state level until now.
It has been an issue in Queensland and NSW state elections, and Queensland in particular has seen huge changes in regulation as it switched between LNP and Labor state governments.
Incidents of anger and even violence in Victoria and NSW have been blamed on tensions over land clearing laws. Farmers say overzealous regulations preventing land clearing harm their profitability, and their ability to make decisions about how best to farm their property.
Labor says it wants to create a "climate trigger" under Commonwealth environmental law, which would allow the Federal Government to intervene to investigate "broad-scale" land clearing activity, and "ensure proper and rigorous investigation" of its impact on Australia's ability to meet its international climate commitments.
The Coalition says that would be Commonwealth overreach. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says the states have responsibility for land clearing regulations, and that is the way it should stay.

Backpacker Tax

Backpackers make up one quarter of the national farm workforce, according to the National Farmers' Federation. Farmers say the Government's plan to scrap the tax-free threshold for backpackers, and tax them at 32.5 per cent from the first dollar they earn, will force backpackers to go elsewhere, and make it impossible for farmers to find the workers they need.
The Government had budgeted to recoup $540 million over four years through the changes, but farmers challenge that figure, saying it relies on backpackers continuing to come to Australia in spite of the new, higher taxes.
The Government's changes were due to take effect from July, but have been delayed to 2017 while a review is undertaken.
The agriculture and tourism sectors presented an alternative proposal, which they claim would reap more than the $500 million the Government hopes to raise. The Coalition has delayed the introduction of the new tax, but that is unlikely to be enough for farmers, who are angry, dismayed, and calling for certainty. Labor will commit only to sit down and talk to the industry about the issue if it is elected.

Regional Australia concessional loans

Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce says a re-elected Coalition would create a new national body to administer the Commonwealth's concessional loans programs.
The programs are currently administered by the states, in an arrangement which has been blamed for slow and inconsistent delivery of loans.
Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said he had no problem with the principle of Commonwealth administration of the concessional loans.

Workplace relations

Workplace Relations is one of the key policy areas the major parties truly differ on.
Until recently, the Government has spoken little about it, outside union corruption and governance. The Coalition remains scarred by its 2007 election loss, which was in large part due to former prime minister John Howard's WorkChoices policy.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is keen to limit the focus within this policy area to the reinstatement of the Howard-era construction industry watchdog, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which was his trigger for the double dissolution election.
It is also a sensitive policy area for Labor thanks to former Federal Labor MP Craig Thomson spending tens of thousands of dollars of Health Services Union money on hotels, personal travel and his 2007 election campaign.

Australian Building and Construction Commission

The Coalition wants the Howard government-era building industry watchdog, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, re-established and expanded to cover the transport of building goods.
Labor does not want the ABCC re-established, arguing it strips away oversight of the use of coercive powers. Labor's replacement body, Fair Work Building & Construction, has coercive powers but needs Administrative Appeals Tribunal permission to use them.
The Coalition wants union officials to be subject to the same disclosure and transparency obligations as company directors, and has proposed legislation called the Registered Organisations Bill.
Labor is against the Registered Organisations Bill and instead proposes giving the corporate regulator — the Australian Securities and Investments Commission — oversight of the most serious contraventions of the Registered Organisations Act as well, as a doubling of the penalties for criminal offences under the Fair Work Act.

Penalty rates

Some Coalition MPs want Sunday penalty rates cut to Saturday rates for hospitality and retail workers, but the official party policy is that it is up to the industrial umpire, the Fair Work Commission, to set penalty rates.
Penalty rates have been a messy issue for Labor during the campaign. The party insists Sunday penalties would not fall if it was elected because it would make a strong submission to the Fair Work Commission. But, like the Coalition, it says it would abide by the Commission's ruling. The Greens want to protect Sunday penalty rates with legislation.

Unemployment

The Coalition does not have a specific unemployment target, saying it wants it to be as low as possible.
Labor is promising to work towards 'full employment' and has nominated a target of 5 per cent unemployment.
The Government has established a ministerial working group to consider policy options to protect foreign workers from exploitation.
Labor is proposing to increase the penalties for employers who deliberately avoid paying their employees properly.

Victorian CFA dispute

The Coalition has pledged to amend the Fair Work Act to prevent unions impacting on volunteer emergency services workers.
This pledge follows the dispute between Victorian Country Fire Authority volunteers and the United Firefighters Union. Volunteers fear a new enterprise deal between professional firefighters and the State Government will give too much control to the union, impacting their ability to fight blazes.
Federal Labor has largely remained quiet on the dispute, saying it is a state issue.

Reporting

The economy - Dan Conifer
Health - Sophie Scott
Families - Jane Norman
Education - Julie Doyle
Environment - Sara Phillips
NBN - Tim Leslie
Rural and regional affairs - Lucy Barbour and Anna Vidot
Workplace relations - Eliza Borello
Producers - Tim Leslie and Dan Conifer