Samantha Maiden: Inflation – and tax questions the PM won’t answer

Rising food costs and inflation could be very bad news for the PM – who is refusing to answer another money-related question, writes Samantha Maiden.

There comes a moment in every election campaign when things get so weird it’s hard to know where to start.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg delivering a monologue about zoo animals when he was trying to explain Australia’s inflation rate was one such moment.

In case you were wondering, taxpayers spent $95m feeding crocodiles and lions during the pandemic.

A single lion can apparently eat around $250 worth of red meat a week – which will presumably be what Australians will soon be paying for some butcher’s sausages if inflation keeps rising.

As a committed vegetarian – who happily buys two teenage boys a cornucopia of meat from the local butcher’s – I simply want to purchase an iceberg lettuce for less than $5.

There are, of course, also omens in politics.

The inflation figures that emerged on Wednesday suggest interest rates are about to rise.

That hasn’t happened in an election campaign since 2007, when Kevin Rudd was elected.

Could it be a sign that Prime Minister Scott Morrison is running out of time to secure another miracle election?

Trust me, I have a graph … Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the campaign trail in Rockhampton. Picture: Jason Edwards

Of course, this election is very different to 2007.

The Labor leader doesn’t yet have the natural ease that Kevin Rudd had when campaigning.

Spooky then to watch Mr Rudd briefly reprise his role to campaign in the Victorian seat of Chisholm while the Labor leader remained in his sick bed.

Triggering might be a more apt word for some in the Labor team, including treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers who famously helped blast him out of the job when he was a staffer to Wayne Swan.

As Anthony Albanese continues to endure isolation as he recovers from Covid, locked up in his home with his long-suffering dog Toto, other Labor frontbenchers have been strutting the political stage.

It was Dr Chalmers and finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher who responded to the news inflation has risen to its fastest pace in more than two decades, lifting from 3.5 per cent to 5.1 per cent over the 12 months to March.

Petrol prices have gone up by 11 per cent, although the government has also taken action to address that via a temporary reduction in fuel excise.

The one question the Prime Minister wouldn’t answer: how much more Australians will be paying in taxes when the low- and middle-income tax offset (LMITO) is abolished next year.

This week, Mr Morrison promised no new taxes for the next four years if he is re-elected as prime minister.

When asked on Wednesday about the looming tax increase, Mr Morrison said the LMITO was always going to be a temporary measure.

“That was a temporary measure that was set out in budgets and legislation,” he said.

“We are not changing any of that legislation, we are not introducing any legislation to do that. That is a standing feature of the tax system.”

The PM then sidestepped a question about how much more tax low- and middle-income earners will face on average when the LMITO is abolished. Instead of revealing how much of a tax hike is on the cards for millions of Aussies, Mr Morrison went on to speak about his party’s promise to keep tax rates low.

“What Australians will always face under our government is lower taxes,” he said.

Meanwhile, the conga line of exotic candidates keeps coming.

A Liberal-National Party candidate for the Senate who believes fat people should be banned from guzzling soft drinks has emerged into the spotlight.

She also believes that “illiterate” Aboriginal voters from Cape York are being driven around in buses by lefties to vote in elections.

Queenslander Nicole Tobin, who hails from Cairns, is a “passionate educator” who believes we can all change the world, one child at a time, through Kindermusik.

Queensland Senate candidate Nicole Tobin.

She’s also a big supporter of refined sugar bans for fat people.

“And no soft drink if your BMI is over 30 either,’’ she wrote in one social media post.

“Water or one glass of red wine.”

In case you were wondering, Ms Tobin said that as a teacher she could always spot the lunch boxes of children who were overweight.

“I look at the lunch boxes of the children that are not making good choices and there’s a lot of packet food,’’ she said.

“And I know parents are busy. I’m not saying I never sent my children with packaged food, but the ones who consistently have packaged food are the ones that you know, they don’t always make the good choices.

“You’re finding Tiny Teddies. The little muffins that are made at Coles and Woolies.

“My children only drink soft drink when they do cross-country.

“I only drink soft drink basically on polling day because I need sugar on those days.”

Good to know.

Last year, in response to a Twitter post asking if people were confident the election result could be trusted, Ms Tobin said there were real concerns.

“I’ve seen it also within Leichhardt in the last decade, buses driving around usually illiterate people from the Cape around Cairns booths,’’ she said.

Asked whether this was racist, Ms Tobin said it wasn’t at all.

“They are trusting, they are so trusting, our Indigenous people. They’re being misled,’’ she said.