ScoMo’s tax plans woos the True Believers
Rusted on ALP voters are often called True Believers, but what election promise has one-in-four Labor supporters eyeing off Scott Morrison’s agenda?
QLD Politics
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LABOR’S true believers are losing faith in Bill Shorten’s tax plans with more than a quarter of ALP voters saying to prefer what Scott Morrison has to offer, according to shocking new polling.
While Labor has on offer a big tax-and-spend agenda — with tax cuts this year but reaping in $154 billion from negative gearing, franking credits and other reforms, the Prime Minister’s offer of no new taxes has won approval from more than one-on-four Labor supporters.
It comes as the Coalition unveiled a last ditch bid to win the family vote heading into the final week, with a female-focused cash splash.
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To coincide with Mother’s Day, the Prime Minister will commit $36 million to better support the 100,000 Australians impacted by post-natal depression with free in-hospital checks for new parents, as well as $10 million for compression garments for breast cancer survivors to control swelling.
The announcement comes ahead of the Liberal party’s campaign launch in Melbourne on Sunday, with the party staring down the loss of up to 10 seats in Victoria.
From day one the Coalition has been targeting Labor’s tax plans, while spruiking its own plan to splash out bigger personal income tax cuts over the next decade.
While Labor has dismissed the Coalition’s promises, kicking in from 2022 and 2024, as off in the “Never Never”, the message has failed to cut through with all of its supporters.
An exclusive YouGov-Galaxy poll for The Sunday Mail found that 59 per cent of Queensland voters preferred the Coalition’s tax plan to Labor’s proposal, while just 26 per cent backed Mr Shorten’s tax offering.
A whopping 91 per cent of Liberal voters backed Mr Morrison’s plan, which includes tax breaks of up to $1080 from July this year, with major changes to all but eliminate bracket creep over the next six years.
But, it also found that 27 per cent of Labor voters found the Coalition’s tax plan more appealing.
Just 3 per cent of Coalition supporters thought Mr Shorten’s plan had merit and less than 60 per cent of Labor voters backed it.
Campaigning yesterday, Mr Shorten said his tax cuts were fairer, and that 10 million Australians would benefit from cuts offered from July.
“This is not the time for reckless spending of $154 billion on unaffordable tax subsidies for the property investors who make a loss, for giving people income tax refunds when they haven’t paid any income tax,” he said.
But Mr Morrison said now was not the time to slug with economy with additional burdens.
“We’re going into a period of time in our economy which requires responsible financial management, responsible economic management — not big spending, big taxing, bigger governments, running around pretending they can solve every problem you have.
The 848 voters surveyed on May 8 and 9 were asked if they preferred Mr Shorten’s plan to increase taxes to provide more funding for government services, or Mr Morrison saying there would be no new taxes because the money was “better off in your pocket”.
Labor costings released on Friday show it will raise about $154 billion over a decade from abolishing negative gearing except on new houses, halving the capital gains tax discount and crackdowns on trusts, multinationals and superannuation concessions.
It will also save $285 billion over a decade by not proceeding with the Coalition’s commitment to raise the low income tax threshold from $38,000 to $45,000 and essentially abolish an entire tax bracket.
But the Opposition has targeted the government’s tax plan, pointing to Australia Institute modelling which shows it gives $77 billion in tax breaks to higher income earners over a decade.
In a blow to Mr Morrison, no former Liberal prime ministers are expected to attend the Coalition’s official launch which threatens to be overrun by protesters.
On Saturday, Liberal sources confirmed Tony Abbott would spend the day in his Sydney electorate while Malcolm Turnbull is in the United States.
Liberal sources said John Howard is also expected to skip the campaign event after returning from London on Friday.
The absence of recent Liberal prime minister threatens to overshadow the launch and remind voters of the leadership turmoil.
It comes one week after Labor brought together former prime ministers Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and Paul Keating for its launch.
Instead Mr Morrison will be joined by wife Jenny, daughters Lily and Abbey as well as his mother Marion.
Continuing its small target-strategy, the Coalition will commit $36 million to screen new parents before they leave the hospital and an extra $4 million will be promised for the Australian Breastfeeding Association to support new mothers.
The announcement comes one week after Australia’s “first lady” Jenny Morrison revealed she receive treatment for depression after the birth of her two daughters.
Mr Morrison it was a cause close to his heart.
“Too many parents have suffered in silence but we’ve got their backs,” Mr Morrison said.
“Rolling out this check to every new mum, dad and bub will be a key part of the other health check ups new families go through. This Check should be an expected and important part of parental health care as much as vaccinations.”
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