On a generous view, shadow treasurer Chris Bowen is showing refreshing political honesty in telling self-funded retirees that they are perfectly entitled to vote against Labor if they don't like its franking credits crackdown. Politics is about choices. Money is scarce. Politicians should be candid. At least Mr Bowen has not personally brushed off elderly voters, as Bill Shorten apparently did to retired 81-year-old Rex Gattridge featured on our page one last week. The Opposition leader apparently had a plane to catch out of Townsville.

On a more realistic view, Labor has simply decided to confiscate money from investors and savers – even octogenarian couples who sought to remain independent – to fund its phoney Mediscare strategy and to target median-income working-age swing voters. After all, most of the close to $60 billion that Labor aims to raise from the crackdown over the next decade would come from oldies in Liberal and National electorates. It would be less cynical if Labor's franking crackdown was part of a genuine tax reform package in which many people would give a little so that most people could get more. But, cynically, it's not.