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The Coalition have won the election. Here's what they've promised.

 

With AAP.

Scott Morrison appears set to return to power after voters in Queensland, NSW and Tasmania rallied behind the Liberal-National coalition.

However, former prime minister Tony Abbott has become the biggest casualty of the day losing his seat to independent Zali Steggall.

At 9.45pm, it appeared the coalition was holding 73 seats to Labor’s 65, with eight seats in doubt.

A party needs 76 seats to have a majority in the lower house.

The crossbench is set to include at least independents Andrew Wilkie and Ms Steggall, Katter’s Australian Party leader Bob Katter, the Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie and the Greens’ Adam Bandt.

The Liberals benefited from a strong flow of preferences from Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, which together gained almost 6.5 per cent of the national primary vote.

Now the outcome looks inevitable, let’s revisit what policies the Coalition promised in the lead up to the election.

What have the Liberal Party promised?

who won the election
Image: Getty.
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Childcare.

The Liberal proposed that a typical family would be about $1,300 a year better off under their new Child Care Subsidy. It’s the same policy they’ve had in place since July 1 2018, and it saw childcare costs drop 10 per cent in the first six months of its introduction.

While it is helping working families, the Childcare Alliance says its biggest flaw is that the subsidy isn’t available to all families – only those who pass the ‘activity test’ which filters out those who don’t work, study, run a business or care for a relative.

 

Healthcare. 

The Liberal party pledged less money overall than Labor, offering $1.25 billion for a Community Health and Hospitals Program to fund projects and services in every state and territory.

They’re specifically focused on putting money into things like mental health and chronic disease, in particular, they’re offering $36 million to deliver mental health checks for mums, dads and babies before they leave maternity wards.

They will also extend funding to the Australian Breastfeeding Association by $4 million.

What they fall short on is putting women’s health as a national strategy policy, and supporting affordable pregnancy termination services.

Career.

The Checkpoint initiative is the Liberal party’s big career play for women.

They’ve promised to put money into supporting young women and girls in STEM subjects so they can, in their words, “get the high-paying jobs of tomorrow.”

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When it comes to closing the pay gap, the Liberals don’t really have a strategy, whereas Labor said they wanted to ban pay secrecy clauses and introduce national reporting on progress.

To raise the number of women on government boards, Liberal said they have a target of 50 per cent, but there’s no time frame for reaching it. Labor gave a three year deadline to reach the same target.

For superannuation, the Liberal party didn't have a gendered strategy, but promised wage subsidies for mature workers and no new taxes on super.

Domestic Violence.

The Liberal party proposed $328 million towards domestic and family violence as part of its Fourth Action Plan, with $7.8 million to go towards working with alleged perpetrators in family law matters.

The funding will focus on frontline services and emergency accommodation.

According to the Women’s Electoral Lobby, demand in this space is actually up around the $754 million mark.

Climate change.

Compared to Labor and the Greens, the Liberal Party proposed conservative plans for tackling climate change.

They are committed to Australia's 2030 Paris Agreement and will focus on the Emissions Reduction Fund which helps farmers benefit from new revenue opportunities. They'll be supporting small business to invest in solar, and will focus on a strategy to transition new vehicle technology and infrastructure to electric versions of themselves.

Throughout their campaign, Labor said they would cut emissions by 45 per cent and ensure half of Australia's energy is from renewable sources by 2050. They wanted to force a cap on the country's biggest polluters and give business tax breaks to buy electric cars.