Treasurer Jim Chalmers lashed by Sussan Ley for potentially backflipping on stage 3 tax cuts

Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley has lashed Labor as speculation mounts that Treasurer Jim Chalmers will walk away from tax cuts in the federal budget for Australians.

Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley has lashed Labor as speculation mounts that Treasurer Jim Chalmers will walk away from tax relief they promised hard working Australians.

Teachers, nurses and tradies are among the Australians who would benefit from the stage three tax cuts but “don’t meet Labor’s tax test”, Ms Ley said.

“How can it be that Labor is suggesting nurses, teachers and tradies working 60 to 70 hours a week – working bloody hard for themselves, their families and their future – do not deserve this promised tax relief?” Ms Ley asked at a press conference in Albury on Saturday.

“My question today for the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who still seems to be hiding along with many of his ministers … is who isn’t working hard enough to deserve tax relief?

“This is about deceiving the Australian people. During the election campaign when Anthony Albanese was very happy to agree to these tax cuts, the global uncertainty was known, the forward modelling had been done.”

“Was this your plan all along?” Ms Ley also asked of Labor.

“Is this a deception you always had in mind?”

Ms Ley also called on independent MPs to make their views on the stage 3 tax cuts more clear.

“I think that’s a question the independents need to ask their own constituents,” she said.

“And while they’ve made some comments and issued some lines, it’s really important that we learn from them and it’s really important we know what conversations they’ve had with the government and exactly where they stand.”

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley has hit out at Labor over the stage 3 tax cuts.

Her comments come as all of the spending in the federal budget must be “defensible on economic grounds” Treasurer Jim Chalmers said, amid the government’s ongoing refusal to outline if it will be making changes to scheduled future tax cuts.

Mr Chalmers, in a speech at the Queensland Investment Showcase on Friday, said the government’s upcoming budget would include “difficult decisions for difficult times” and follow the “responsible path, not the path of least resistance”.

And he also warned “important developments”—including warnings from the International Monetary Fund of an intensifying risk of a global recession—would play a role in final considerations for the budget.

But the government has still refused to outline the future of legislated stage three tax cuts, and whether it will make changes as part of the budget.

The tax cuts would lift the ceiling for the top taxpayers from $180,000 to $200,000, and no one earning under this amount would pay more than 30 cents in the dollar.

In practice, a teacher earning $70,000 would pay $620 less in tax every year, a research scientist on $90,000 would pay $1120 less, while a diesel mechanic on $100,000 would pay $1370 less tax.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been floating the idea of amending the stage 3 tax cuts. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Mr Chalmers, on Friday, asserted the government’s position on stage three tax cuts — which it supported while in Opposition and committed to prior to the election — had not changed.

But he also said “no responsible government” could ignore the issue of rising inflation, a rocky global economy and “persistent structural pressures on the budget”.

“I’m making a broader point that all of the spending in the budget needs to be defensible on economic grounds,” Mr Chalmers said.

The Opposition have come out swinging against the federal government’s lack of clarity on the plan for stage three tax cuts, with Opposition foreign minister Simon Birmingham calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to front up and come clean.

Where on earth is Anthony Albanese?” Mr Birmingham said on Sky News.

“Why hasn‘t he come out and repeated today what he said before the election, which is that Labor is committed to these tax cuts and delivery of them?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said before the federal election that Labor would keep the policy. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Mr Chalmers, in the speech, announced a 20-person strong roundtable of “Treasurer’s Investors” made up of bank heads including Comm Bank’s Matt Comyn and superannuation fund bosses.

“Not everything can be solved by direct government investment,” Mr Chalmers said.

“The Investor Roundtable will bring together leaders from the investment community including from some of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, the major banks and global asset managers, to identify and overcome barriers to investment.”

The “core participants” of the roundtable includes Labor stalwarts Wayne Swan, as chair of CBUS Super, and Greg Combet as chair of IFM investors.

The roundtables will run from November 2022 to September 2023.

Originally published as Treasurer Jim Chalmers lashed by Sussan Ley for potentially backflipping on stage 3 tax cuts