If Labor abolishes tax cuts it would largely impact its own voters

The Albanese Government has signalled it is considering breaking its own election promise on tax cuts but if they do, those that would bear the brunt are their own voters.

Abolishing the Stage 3 tax cuts would overwhelmingly affect voters in seats held by Labor, Teal and Greens MPs, an analysis of their electoral impact has found.

In NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, none of the seats with the most people who would lose if the cuts are axed are held by Liberal Party.

The Albanese Government has signalled in recent days it is considering breaking its election promise to retain the Stage 3 tax cuts, which would give everyone who earns between $45,000 and $200,000 more money and come into effect on July 1, 2024.

The Greens want them dumped, as does Teal MP Monique Ryan in Kooyong. North Sydney’s Kylea Tink has failed to back them.

Australian Taxation Office data shows the top 10 seats in each state with the most to gain are either wealthy electorates like Sydney (Labor) and Warringah (Teal) or aspirational seats like Greenway (Labor).

The Albanese Government has signalled in recent days it is considering breaking its election promise to retain the Stage 3 tax cuts. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Asked on Friday if the Government was still committed to the tax cuts, Mr Albanese said the position hadn’t changed.

But he added: “There’s been meetings, obviously, this week … we’ll continue to get on with making sure that we deliver a budget that is responsible, that acknowledges the pressures that are on it.”

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said Labor was looking for any excuse to ditch its commitment to the tax cuts.

“If it does, it’ll be everyday Australians who will pay the price,” he said.

“Millions of aspirational families right across the country will miss out on potentially thousands of dollars – their own hard-earned money they’re rightly entitled to – while tens of thousands of Australians living across Australia, including in the suburbs would be worse off if Labor breaks its promise.”

More than 2.5 million taxpayers in NSW will be better off if the tax cuts go ahead.

And many of them are not in “rich” seats but instead in areas that are traditionally described as battlers.

That includes significant numbers in Greenway (Blacktown and the northwest), Lindsay (Penrith and lower Blue Mountains), Macarthur (Camden-Campbelltown), Chifley (Doonside-Mount Druitt), Paterson (north of Newcastle) and Robertson (southern Central Coast). Mr Taylor’s seat of Hume would also feel the pain.

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