Labor’s robocall tax attack on Pauline Hanson in Queensland byelection battle
A LAST-MINUTE attempt to gain political mileage out of the tax cut debate broke out between Labor and One Nation, with desperate tit-for-tat robocalls rolled out as a vote on the Turnbull government’s $144 billion tax reform loomed. HEAR LABOR’S ROBOCALL
NSW
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A LAST-DITCH battle to wrest political mileage out of the tax debate broke out between Labor and One Nation, with desperate tit-for-tat robocalls rolled out in Queensland yesterday as a vote on the Turnbull government’s $144 billion cuts scheme loomed.
Labor narrowly won the Queensland seat of Longman at the last federal election with the help of One Nation preferences, and risks losing it to the Coalition at its upcoming July 28 by-election.
Robocalls in the electorate yesterday morning authorised by Labor accused One Nation leader Pauline Hanson of “selling Queenslanders out” and offered to connect voters directly to her office to lobby against her decision to support the government’s tax cuts.
“Right now in Canberra, Pauline Hanson plans to vote with Malcolm Turnbull to give another tax cut to the top end of town,” the robocall said.
“She’s even giving herself a massive tax cut, but it’s not too late for us to stop her.”
HOW MUCH WILL YOU GET FROM TAX CUTS?
But Senator Hanson fired back, accusing federal Labor leader Bill Shorten of lying.
“I think Australians now who are struggling, those people on the lowest incomes, they can get some relief now and I am pleased to be part of this,” she said.
One Nation authorised its own robocalls in Longman in which Senator Hanson says she voted “for battlers … low- and middle-income earners to receive a tax cut”.
“I think Australians now who are struggling, those people on the lowest incomes, they can get some relief now and I am pleased to be part of this,” she said.
“I did this because ordinary, everyday workers, including tradesmen, nurses, school teachers, police, fire and emergency workers, every hardworking Australian deserves to pay less tax.”
Labor holds Longman, one of five seats to go to the polls on the by-election Super Saturday, by just 0.8 per cent, but polling conducted earlier this month put the Coalition in front on 52 per cent.
One Nation polled 9.4 per cent in Longman, an electorate north of Brisbane that includes the town of Caboolture, at the 2016 election.
The average worker in Caboolture earns $43,800, and will get a $404 tax cut next year, climbing to $540 from 2023 onward.
Under Labor’s plan, they would receive between $200 and $300 more — but Labor’s refusal to back the government’s current package meant they would have missed out entirely without One Nation’s support for the cuts.