Anthony Albanese should provide a simple yes or no answer on stage 3 tax cuts: Clare Armstrong

Anthony Albanese needs to stop the “word games” and give the Australian public a simple yes or no on the status of stage 3 tax cuts, writes Clare Armstrong.

Tricky language on the Stage 3 tax cuts may have worked for Labor so far, but now the “word games” are doing Anthony Albanese more harm than good.

The Prime Minister was utterly unconvincing last week when he tried to argue there was ostensibly no difference between saying his position on the tax cuts “has not changed” as opposed to giving a “promise” they would be delivered.

The “our position has not changed” line has been Labor’s catch phrase about the tax cuts for almost three years, but it is time to retire the phrase and get real with Australian voters.

“Promise,” “guarantee,” “confirm” – any of those will do – Stage 3 will come into effect on July 1 this year in full as currently legislated, or be upfront about what is going to change.

If the cuts are unchanged, Labor has little to lose by reaffirming this with unambiguous language.

Prime Minster Anthony Albanese, at Skyrail Cairns Wednesday 10th January 2024. The Prime Minister, has several one-word answers that will solve the problem, writes Clare Armstrong. Picture: Brian Cassey

With the party languishing in the polls with midterm blues fuelled by cost of living fears, promising more take home pay to the vast majority of working Australians would put Labor on sounder ground to pursue further relief measures for lower income earners. The Budget has already factored in the inflationary impact of the cuts, as has the Reserve Bank of Australia, and businesses grappling with labour shortages are adamant the change will incentivise people to work more.

Large portions of Middle Australia missed out on assistance at the last Budget.

Energy bill relief went to people on welfare, increased childcare subsidies helped families with young children and cheaper medicines brought relief for people with chronic illness.

But for the many millions of people who fall outside these qualifiers, most have just had a year of much higher living costs, soaring mortgages and decreased buying power in part due to income tax bracket creep.

ABC presenter Michael Rowland grilled Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Labor's promised tax cuts. Photo: ABC / Supplied

Stage 3, which means no Australian earning up to $200,000 a year will pay more than 30 cents in the dollar tax, helps the very people who believe the government overlooked them last time. But if the PM continues to keep to the current “nothing has changed” script, the seed of doubt and mistrust in the public’s mind will continue to eat into Labor’s precious remaining political capital over the next few months.

The uncertainty stems from the time Labor took to decide its position on the cuts in the first place.

The 2021 decision, along with Labor dumping its poorly received negative gearing changes, was a key moment in Albanese’s “small target” strategy to win office.

Though there was far from unanimous support within the Labor caucus for Stage 3 of the income tax reforms first passed in an omnibus bill by the Morrison Government, unravelling the proposal was deemed too politically risky, especially from opposition.

From this moment on, whenever asked about the party’s support for Stage 3, Albanese and his colleagues would simply insist their position hadn’t changed.

Prime Minster Anthony Albanese, Treasurer Jim Chalmers are coming under increasing pressure for some clear answers on the issue.

Try as they might, the Coalition were ultimately unsuccessful in drumming up sufficient fear in the community that this tricky language belied some grand plan to significantly change or even dump Stage 3 to swing votes in 2022.

But with the start date now less than six months away, any sign of hesitation from Labor carries more weight.

Despite increased questions about Stage 3 being an inevitability in the lead up to the May budget, the PM struggled to keep his cool when pressed on the issue during a breakfast television interview on ABC. His dogged refusal to “promise” Stage 3 would go ahead as planned this close to the expected start date made Albanese look as though he was trying to hide a larger truth.

Repeatedly saying the position has not changed is no guarantee the cuts are coming.

What hasn’t changed today, could very well change tomorrow.

Despite Labor’s tricky language, there has been no substantive effort made to make a public case against Stage 3 by any senior members of the government.

Though a recent Freedom of Information request lodged by Capital Brief has found at least two documents exist that relate to departmental advice on Stage 3 sought by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, without the contents (access was denied by the government) there’s no smoking gun.

If Labor was serious about reigning in, changing or even delaying Stage 3, springing it on the voting public at Budget time without having built a decent case is a huge political gamble.

There’s also little to be gained from sticking to the script purely to avoid speculation there was a past time in which Labor might have changed its position.

A simple answer is all Australians want.