Turnbull under pressure to dump tax cuts after by-election fail
FRESH from a shock Super Saturday result for Labor, Bill Shorten has said he is “hard to kill” and had a burn for the PM.
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THINGS aren’t looking great for the Prime Minister, but looking up for Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.
Last week in Braddon, Malcolm Turnbull directly linked the outcome of the upcoming by-elections to his leadership.
“By-elections are a test of policies, they’re a test of leaders, they’re a test of candidates, but there are many issues and people vote with different matters in mind,” he said.
Tad awkward, then, that Labor emerged victorious, winning “four from four” seats at the end of the Super Saturday contest.
Speaking to Today host Karl Stefanovic this morning, Mr Shorten explained the reason behind the Super Saturday result.
“So they can’t kill Bill?” Stefanovic asked in reference to Labor leadership rumours in the lead-up to the five by-elections.
“We’re the same aren’t we Karl, we are hard to kill,” Mr Shorten replied.
“See the thing about politics it’s not about the politicians. It’s about the people. The people are over us politicians talking about ourselves. They want to know what we are going to do for them.”
Mr Shorten also had one of his famous zingers for Mr Turnbull.
“Mr Turnbull made it about leadership. The reality is he needs to drop the tax cuts on the way out of office, he needs to drop them, leave the keys to the Lodge and go.
“He has made his whole case to be Prime Minister on the basis of reducing corporate tax rates for big business. It’s a bad idea. But if he can’t even sell his own economic ideas he should hand over over someone who can sell economic ideas that actually believe him.”
Mr Turnbull now faces multiple challenges. He will soon have to release Philip Ruddock’s report on protecting religious freedom, an issue sourced directly to unhappiness among Liberals that a big majority of Australians backed same-sex marriage.
He also has to defend its controversial corporate tax package, amid an upcoming royal commission into banks and other financial services.
Now the big question is whether the government can survive this.
TURNBULL UNDER PRESSURE TO DUMP TAX CUTS
Malcolm Turnbull says his party is still committed to implementing corporate tax cuts, despite warnings to dump them or face an election loss.
The policy would reduce the rate of company tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent by 2026-27, and has been slammed by Labor as a gift to the big banks.
“We will be carefully considering the analysis of the by-elections, particularly in Braddon and in Longman, but I can assure you we will remain committed to the strong national economic plan that is delivering record jobs growth, strong investment,” he said.
Mr Turnbull said the government would “look very seriously and thoughtfully and humbly at the way in which voters have responded”, but stopped short of confirming whether he would take the policy to the next election if it were to be defeated in the Senate.
“It is vitally important that Australian companies are competitive. If you look around the country, if you believe that having record jobs growth is important — I do and I think most Australians do — you can see that’s coming because businesses are investing and they’re hiring,” the Prime Minister said.
COALITION TRAILS LABOR IN LATEST NEWSPOLL
Despite Labor’s success at the by-election, Malcolm Turnbull has maintained his lead over Bill Shorten as the nation’s preferred Prime Minister.
In the latest Newspoll, conducted for The Australian, the Prime Minister leads at 48 per cent to Mr Shorten’s 29 per cent.
But the two-party-preferred split sits at 51-49 in favour of Labor.
Mr Shorten now holds the longest period of disapproval for an Opposition leader since the 1980s, when John Howard was leader of the Liberal Party.
While there was plenty of speculation about Bill Shorten’s leadership of Labor ahead of the by-elections, the positive result seems to have secured his position.
Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek told the ABC she “doesn’t think there was ever a genuine problem”, adding that she believes speculation will go away in the wake of the by-election results.
Labor says the next election was choice between “hospitals and the big banks”.
“If (Turnbull) is just going to keep offering us more of the same, well then I think he’ll pay an electoral price for that,” Mr Shorten told reporters.
“My candidates are more fair dinkum than their candidates, and my policies are more fair dinkum than their policies.”
HOW GOVERNMENT RESPONDED TO BY-ELECTION FAIL
Addressing the media in Sydney yesterday morning, Mr Turnbull said Bill Shorten was “punching the air as though he has won the World Cup”.
“There is not a lot to celebrate for the Labor Party,” he said. “There’s not a lot to crow about.
“The reality is that the Labor Party has secured an average or conventional swing in a by-election to it in Longman and has not secured any swing at all in Braddon.
“At this stage it looks like it will be a lineball result, so there is not a lot to celebrate for the Labor Party.
“Unfortunately politics is often reported like sport nowadays, and not a lot of attention is being given to the truth or otherwise of what politicians are saying.
“The important thing is that now these citizenship issues have been dealt with, and we will continue to get on with delivering the strong economic growth, the record jobs growth, more investment, more growth, more jobs, higher wages.”
Speaking on ABC’s Insiders yesterday, Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne rejected suggestions that the horror results reflected on Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership.
He also refuted claims the Prime Minister made the by-election result about his own leadership.
“What (Turnbull) said, to be fair, is that by-elections are a mixture of different issues — local issues, national issues, leadership issues, candidate issues,” Mr Pyne told the ABC.
“He didn’t make it a test of his leadership, and quite frankly, what’s happened here is that Labor got the average swing in the by-election in Longman, and there was a swing to the government in Braddon.
“They were the two key contests, and actually, the government got a swing to it in Braddon and the average swing in Longman against it.
“So no one should be punching the air in the Labor Party about keeping the 100-year tradition going that governments don’t win by-elections against the Opposition.”
Originally published as Turnbull under pressure to dump tax cuts after by-election fail