‘Bill Shorten reheated’: PM slams Labor tax talk

Scott Morrison has accused Labor of treating blue-collar workers earning high wages “like they’re some merchant banker in Sydney”.

A new tax showdown is looming after the Opposition would not rule out slashing the next stage of personal income tax cuts and revealed a decision was yet to be made on its negative gearing policy.

It has already prompted Prime Minister Scott Morrison to accuse Labor of treating blue collar workers on high incomes “like they’re some merchant banker in Sydney”.

The Opposition is mulling the future of the stage 3 tax cuts, which give tax breaks for people earning $45,000 to $200,000, but it is understood to be focused on the top end of the threshold.

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Opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers says a decision has yet to be made on stage three tax cuts. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Stage three cuts have already been legislated, but are not due to start until July 2024, meaning a Labor Government would have to actively repeal them.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese this week said of the stage three plans that it was “very hard to argue, in the circumstances, for high-end tax cuts”.

Opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said the party was yet to make a decision on what to do about them.

“We’re not going to be rushed to determine the future of tax cuts that don’t come in for another four years,” he said.

“(Treasurer Josh Frydenberg) said the reason the government didn’t bring forward stage three of the tax cuts is because they needed to get bang for buck.”

Mr Morrison seized on the Opposition’s tax uncertainty, raising the spectre of the blue-collar worker who confronted Bill Shorten in Gladstone over tax for the “rich” at the last election.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Anthony Albanese is “a reheat of Bill Shorten on tax”. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Sarah Marshall

“(Mr Shorten) wouldn’t tell them the truth, that he was going to not go ahead with the tax cuts that we took to that election. In fact, he just front out lied to them,” he said.

“Anthony Albanese is just a reheat of Bill Shorten on tax.

“Voters rejected the idea of setting one Australian against another.”

Stage three tax cuts mean that from 2024 anyone earning between $45,000 and $200,000 will pay 30c in the dollar.