The Squiz 

PM Anthony Albanese hasn’t set the date yet, but this week has seen battle lines drawn by both the major parties on issues that will feature prominently in the upcoming federal election – managing the economy and who is best to lead Australia in these tricky times. Yesterday, Coalition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor outlined a “back to basics” inflation-fighting budgetary approach that would include cutting government spending by $100 billion. Meanwhile, the PM and Treasurer Jim Chalmers have been upping the personal attacks on Coalition leader Peter Dutton, questioning his suitability for higher office. 

What’s that about? 

To start with the Coalition’s moves first, it’s of the view that Team Albanese is spending excessively, which it claims (and the government denies…) is contributing to our drawn-out inflation problems and high interest rates. So as part of their ‘better economic managers’ pitch, Team Dutton has identified a list of programs to go on. Note: the latest inflation data will be out this morning, so it will segue neatly into questions for the government about how they intend to bring inflation down… The latest polls say Dutton and Co are getting traction on some big issues. Cue some moves from the government pushing back hard against their challengers… 

And what has Team Albanese said about Dutton? 

In a speech Treasurer Chalmers gave on Monday night, he labelled Dutton “the most divisive leader of a major political party in Australia’s modern history”. Dutton responded yesterday, saying Chalmers “wants to talk about everything but his failure in the economy”. In the meantime, the government is striking things off its to-do list… Yesterday, Education Minister Jason Clare announced a cap on new international students enrolling at our universities. It will see a maximum of 145,000 international students enrolling at uni and 95,000 at vocational institutions in 2025 – down 53,000 from last year. Clare says the aim is to crack down on those providing “a backdoor” for students to work in Australia, but it comes after the Coalition drew a link with the added pressure on Australia’s housing market… Long story short, ready or not, here comes the next election…