In the lead-up to a federal election next year there will be debate about which party is best placed to manage the economy. While the Liberals argue blindly they have the best plan, it is the Labor Party that has the best offering for business.

Here is why.

First, Labor has the stability in personnel and policy. Bill Shorten has been leader for five years. He is facing his third prime minister. I have been opposition Treasury spokesman for five years. I am facing my third treasurer. Weve learned the lessons of instability and have run a disciplined ship, focused on the long term. Weve also used this long period of stability to develop a comprehensive policy program for government.

Making the tough calls in opposition means we are more capable of delivering stable policy settings in government.

Second, Labor is the only party capable of delivering a coherent and consistent energy policy. In all my meetings with business big and small, Australian and multinational there is one theme to my discussions: the biggest challenge facing business is energy prices and the lack of a national energy policy to engender the investment in generation necessary to put downward pressure on prices.

Of all the negative consequences of the revolving door in personnel of the government and the policy dysfunction we have seen, the lack of a national energy policy is probably the most significant. It is clear the Liberal government is pathologically incapable of delivering an energy policy for Australia. It will be left to a Labor government to deliver one.

Third, Labor has a superior offering on corporate tax than the incumbent government, which recently scrapped its plans to reduce the tax rate for companies with a turnover of more than $50 million. Labor supports the bringing forward of tax cuts to companies with a turnover of less than $50m.

This means that for businesses big and small, the headline corporate tax rate will be the same, regardless of who wins the election.

But a Labor government will deliver the Australian investment guarantee, an offering the Liberals have not matched. Our investment guarantee will allow small, medium and large businesses to deduct immediately 20 per cent of new investments upfront, with the remaining depreciated in line with normal schedules.

The allowance will apply to all tangible and, increasingly important, intangible investments that make up an ever-growing share of non-mining investment.

Fourth, Labor will have a rational competition policy that does not involve divestiture powers.

I dont think its possible to have a policy more anti-investment than the divestment powers put forward by Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg.

What is being proposed is not a consideration of giving the courts a divestment power to be held as a last resort in the most serious breaches of the law. Rather, it is proposed that the treasurer not the courts but a politician have the power to force the divestment of an asset by an energy company if the treasurer takes a dislike to that companys approach. This is more typical of what we are used to seeing in Venezuela.

Nothing screams sovereign risk more than new powers for a minister to break up businesses, but that is exactly what the Liberal Party is running with.

Fifth, well have a more holistic approach to economic growth. Labor is the party of economic growth: we know it lifts people out of poverty and turns aspiration into reality. It is the most effective poverty- alleviation program. But we also need a holistic plan to keep it going. Our plan for growth encapsulates many areas: tax, infrastructure, connectivity, entrepreneurialism. But our plan also has deeper economic engagement in Asia and investment in human capital at the top of the list.

Australia needs a step change in our economic relationship with Asia. Not tinkering, not gradualism, but a fundamental whole-of-nation effort to deepen and broaden our engagement with Asia. Its why weve announced policies that will tap into Australias Asian diaspora, and to drive a sustained whole-of-school change, including by putting in place a program that assists school principals on the importance of Asian literacy and what skills businesses will need to excel in the Asian century.

And with our access to preschool for three and four-year-olds, our better and fairer $14 billion in school funding for 2.5 million children, and modernising TAFE facilities around the country, Labor will deliver record public investments in human capital.

When it comes to economic growth and investment, predictability and stability of policy settings are important. So is a coherent energy policy, a rational competition policy and a more holistic plan for growth. Making the tough calls in opposition gives us an opportunity to deliver stable government. Which is exactly what a Shorten led-Labor government is intent on doing.

This opinion piece was first published in The Australian on Monday, 12 November 2018.