Daniel Wills: Premier Jay Weatherill puts Libs in a spin as Opposition Leader stalls on new state bank tax

THIS is exactly where Premier Jay Weatherill wanted the Liberals. When Labor dropped its great big new bank tax in the State Budget, it did so with an eye to the state election in March than on SA’s finances.

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THIS is exactly where Premier Jay Weatherill wanted the Liberals.

When Labor dropped its great big new bank tax in the State Budget, it did so with more of an eye to the state election in March than on the bottom line of SA’s finances.

While $370 million over four years is a huge figure to the average mortgage holder, it’s a modest sum in Budget terms. For perspective, the bank tax would need to be in place for a full three decades before raising as much as Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis has already trousered by flogging off Motor Accident Commission assets.

SA also gets an extra $2 billion in GST every single year than our share of the national population demands. That’s 20 times more than the bank tax will deliver. This tax grab is all about identity politics, creating division and choosing sides in a class war.

So far, the distraction is working. The catalogue of disasters in energy, jobs, child protection and aged care have all taken a back seat in public debate to Labor’s bashing of fat-cat bankers.

Labor craves that this will be the main campaign contrast, rather than a fight over their own record for the past 16 years and whether the Government has achieved enough to deserve another go.

Labor’s entire narrative since 2014 has been about “standing up” to outside and powerful interests, whether that be the Federal Government, power companies or, now, the big banks.

On Monday, the Liberals are almost certain to give Mr Weatherill that point of difference. The remaining question is exactly what form their opposition to a new tax slug on banks will take. Liberal MPs will meet in the afternoon before Parliament returns on Tuesday when Opposition Leader Steven Marshall is to give his formal reply to the final Budget before the next election in March.

The Advertiser yesterday canvassed the Liberal party room. Views differed, ranging from the so-called “nuclear option” of blocking the measure in the Upper House to promising to roll it back if the Liberals win government, or only as a priority once true Budget repair has been delivered.

One Liberal yesterday said: “We’re totally united against the tax, it’s just what we do about it.”

Mr Marshall has had a messy few days. Within hours of the tax being unveiled last Thursday, he said: “This is the Premier’s Budget; it will pass the Parliament.”

After a weekend of fury from the banking sector and parts of the Liberal base, he’s now moved back into the awkward no-man’s land of indecision, until Monday evening.

Mr Marshall says all options are back on the table. “It would be extraordinary for us to block this measure,” Mr Marshall said yesterday. “But these are extraordinary times.”

The episode has also very publicly exposed one of the major advantages Labor has running into the campaign.

The wheels still turn extremely slowly in the Liberal Party. It will take Mr Marshall 11 full days after the Budget to work out what his party’s exact position is on the tax.

By contrast, Mr Weatherill has both the authority and confidence to change or set government policy with no warning or apology. The party dutifully follows the man who slew a factional godfather and formed minority government over Hawaiian pizza.

If the Liberals do “side with the banks” next week, the popping of Labor champagne corks will be audible from the top of the Westpac building.

It will be the biggest test yet of Mr Marshall’s ability to deliver cut-through lines on a complex issue, setting the scene for a showdown that Labor hardheads think is one they can actually win.