James Morrow: A Howard-lite budget is better than Labor-lite

LIKE Churchill’s fam­ous joke about Americans, it app­ears that the Turnbull government can be counted on to do the right thing — after all other ­options have been exhausted.

LIKE Churchill’s fam­ous joke about Americans, it app­ears that the Turnbull government can be counted on to do the right thing — after all other ­options have been exhausted.

Staring down the barrel of an eventual election and a run of bad luck that has been half fate, half self-inflicted, Scott Morrison last night handed down a budget that offers a double-shot of concrete reform: Tax breaks and deficit cuts.

No, it wasn’t a Budget that could be described as ­Howard-esque. But by handing back money in the form of tax offsets to low and middle-income earning Australians and, perhaps more importantly, flattening the tax base, the government has told Australians who want to get ahead that it is Turnbull and Morrison, not Bill Shorten, who are on their side.

Should Turnbull and Morrison get their measures through Parliament, the old four-bracket system will be gone.

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the government has told Australians who want to get ahead that it is Turnbull and Morrison who are on their side. Picture: Kym Smith

Most income earners will find themselves in the 32.5 per cent rate, which in 2024-25 will take in incomes from $41,001 to $200,000.

This is important because not only does this knock bracket creep on the head, it gets rid of the anti-achievement message sent by marginal tax rates that punish middle-income earners for getting ahead.

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Other measures being pursued by the government will surely help shore up a base of commercially minded Australians who have for too many years felt abandoned by the government.

A get tough on welfare ­approach, including cracking down on welfare payments to cheats and those wanted on criminal charges, is one. So too is the government’s continuing to push a proposal to increase from three years to four the waiting period before migrants can receive the dole.

These are the sorts of measures that most Australians will see as coming from the sensible centre-right, if not centre, of the political spectrum.

Daily Telegraph columnist James Morrow. Picture: John Fotiadis

And while some may bleat, the fact is that if ­Australia is to remain a country that can be generous to both newcomers and incumbents, those paying the bill will want to know that the system is not being taken ­advantage of.

All of this leaves Bill Shorten in a challenging position, particularly given his own need to feint to the left to ­prevent leakage to the Greens.

The ardent class warrior who never tires of reminding Australians of his crusade against the “big end of town” now finds himself forced to choose between opposing for opposition’s sake and letting through relief for the very battling families he claims to support.

And the man who wishes to lead the party of Hawke and Keating back into government will now find himself having to deal with proposals very much in the vein of their reform agenda.

That is, a tax system that is all about being broad, flat, and fair.

Originally published as James Morrow: A Howard-lite budget is better than Labor-lite