The Albanese government reduced the Stage 3 tax cuts that were designed to address some the burden of bracket creep. The trouble is bracket creep is built into our progressive tax system. Unless something is routinely legislated to fix it, bracket creep happens systemically. Labor sent that plan backwards.

Instead, Labor has focused on the unjustifiable figure of $600 billion they made-up as a costing for the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy while denying that their ‘cheapest form of energy’ isn’t cheap at all. Their promised $275 energy saving was grossly wrong, and energy prices keep going up and will continue to do so under Labor.

Where are the economists? In my opinion, they must all be Labor supporters who are staying mum.

Not so with the Coalition’s policy. Making interest rates tax deductible for first home buyers is excellent policy. This is not a direct demand side measure, nor is it like Labor pretending it will build millions of homes at $100,000 each when it has so far built zero under its Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF).

Governments should not be building houses unless it is a frontier situation. But we are hardly building the Overland Telegraph Line these days. Labor could barely build a ‘futureproof’ NBN – it has already been surpassed by Starlink in regional areas.

Yet economists have called Mr Dutton’s interest tax deductibility terrible policy with little critique of Labor’s socialism. Socialism does not work. Adopting socialism and thinking it will magically work again is madness. Cue the tumbleweeds for our economists. No consideration that the policy, like nuclear, works in other countries.

I am beginning to think Australia is so ‘unique’ because lefties dominate the education system, academia, and the media. There’s no other reason ever given why things that work elsewhere cannot work here, whether it is nuclear energy or mortgage interest tax deductibility.

Peter Dutton has vowed to address bracket creep if he is elected next month. It’s pretty obvious that tax brackets should be indexed so they increase each year in line with inflation. Once again, the policy is vague as it is not a promise, but it is a commitment from a future Dutton government. Nevertheless, this is an important reform that would require the fiscal discipline that isn’t in Labor’s DNA. This will be a major tax reform for Australia, but it is hardly novel. The US adjusts tax brackets annually using the CPI.

Budgets are inherently political. So too are the many economists who are focused on the Coalition’s plans while not giving Labor’s budget the scrutiny it deserves. When I challenge Labor’s policies, I often receive comments on social media suggesting that opinions are not evidence. It is such a leftist trope that is part of their gaslighting agenda. Never mind that all the evidence points to Labor being responsible for reduced productivity, reduced disposable income, increased cost of living, higher energy prices, and record business failures.

Addressing bracket creep by indexing tax brackets is a major reform of a perpetual problem. Instead, Labor’s budget, which relies on some magical forecasts and a sudden growth in private final demand is getting the soft treatment by economists. Indeed, there is so much evidence to destroy Labor’s irresponsible economic record it makes me wonder what the Opposition is doing.

Forget the gaslighting, time is running out and the Coalition really needs to step on the gas in more ways than one.

Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is The Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. All opinions in this article are the author’s own.