Back in 2013, Paul Keating, the architect of Australia’s dividend imputation system, warned that around every seven years, Treasury would try to dismantle the franking system. By that reckoning, Treasury – and the obliging Labor government – are three-and-a-half years ahead of schedule.

In May 2019, Bill Shorten’s disastrous and inequitable plan to scrap franking credit refunds, dubbed the “Retirement Tax”, helped in costing him the federal election. Yet, Labor is at it again – this time with a two-pronged policy attack on the franking system from a different angle.