Federal election: Battle of the scare campaign emerges in dying days
Peter Dutton is ramping up his claim that Labor is plotting a de facto “inheritance tax” on super balances over $3 million, as the polls suggest he’s taken another hit.
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Peter Dutton will axe Labor’s plan to reduce university students’ debt promising to slash the budget deficit by billions of dollars.
Releasing the party’s long awaited policy costings, the Liberals will also pledge to reduce the budget deficit by $10 billion and lower debt by $40 billion over the next four years.
The Coalition will confirm on Thursday it will repeal the top-up income tax cuts announced in the March budget, which were worth $17 billion over four years.
“After raking in almost $400 billion in extra revenue, Labor chose to splurge instead of save, leaving Australians more exposed to the next economic shock,” opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor said.
“We will rebuild the nation’s fiscal buffers, reduce debt and begin budget repair because that’s what economic responsibility looks like.”
It will scrap almost $14 billion of production tax credits for critical minerals and green hydrogen; abolish the $3 billion fringe benefits tax exemption for electric vehicles; and save about $10 billion by slashing jobs in the Commonwealth public sector.
It will also cut the $20 billion Rewiring the Nation Fund and the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund.
Mr Dutton is also ramping up his claims that Labor is plotting a de facto “inheritance tax” on super balances over $3 million, as the polls suggest he’s taken another hit.
Duelling scare tactics have emerged in the dying days of the campaign with the Labor Party targeting Mr Dutton’s nuclear power plan and purported policy links to Donald Trump.
But the finalRedBridge-Accent poll published exclusively by News Corp newspapers has found that since the start of April, Labor has extended its two-party-preferred lead by an extra point to 53 per cent.
If that result is accurate, PM Anthony Albanese will win the election in a minority and is even in the hunt for a surprise majority of 75-plus seats.
As recently as November, Labor was behind 49 per cent to 51 per cent. The Coalition counters that the seat by seat polls suggest a tighter contest.
RedBridge Director Kos Samaras said millennial and Gen Z voters are the biggest factor, with the Coalition’s hopes being bashed “against the rocks of diverse and young Australians, large numbers of whom live within critical seats.”
Scare campaigns erupt
As the Coalition prepares to unveil its election costings on Thursday promising a better bottomline to Labor, the Liberal leader has branded the Albanese government’s proposed changes to superannuation as a “quasi-inheritance tax”.
Accusing Labor of pushing a “socialist agenda” that punishes Australians for building wealth, Mr Dutton warned the proposed target would adversely impact retirees and small business owners.
“(The super tax) is, in essence, an inheritance tax, because it’s taking money away from people before they can access it for their superannuation or leave it to their children,” Mr Dutton told Sky News this week.
“The Labor Party believes in inheritance tax every day the week. It’s part of their socialist agenda.
“They believe that you’ve got too much money and the person next door to you hasn’t got enough, and how do we find a way to tax that?”
However, he hasn’t always mentioned that the tax changes – which remain highly controversial because they target unrealised gains – only apply to a tiny proportion of wealthy Australians with $3 million in their super.
In Australia, the average super balance for men aged 55-59 is $316,457.
For over 60s it’s $402,838.
Labor has failed to secure Senate support to legislate the increase the concessional tax rate on earnings from superannuation balances over $3 million.
The policy would lift the tax rate from 15 to 30 per cent — affecting an estimated 80,000 Australians.
What PM says on new super tax
Mr Albanese was pressed on the plan today at the National Press Club insisting he doesn’t resile from it.
“One of the most contentious parts of it is this method of raising revenue through taxing unrealised capital gains,” a press gallery journalist asked.
“There’s opposition to that from the crossbench and other members of society. Now, would you be willing to pursue a compromise version of this and replace the unrealised capital gains method with a higher base tax rate for balances worth 3 million or more?”
“Oh, we have our policy. We’ve had legislation before the parliament and that’s our policy,” Mr Albanese said.
“It will impact, importantly, 0.5 per cent of the superannuation population, 0.5 per cent. That’s all. And it won’t mean they don’t get concessions. It’ll just mean the concession isn’t as large. That’s our policy.”
Asked if he was ruling out any changes, Mr Albanese replied “No.”
“What I’m not doing is changing policy at the National Press Club,” he said.
“We have our legislation that’s before people. And I’ve been transparent and on the income tax changes, I have the guts to come here and say this is what we are doing, this is why we are doing it.”
Liberals target Penny Wong on the Voice
Former prime minister Tony Abbott has claimed Penny Wong has delivered a “two-fingered’ salute to Australia after she hinted it wasn’t over for The Voice.
The Foreign Minister said the Voice, which was rejected by more than 60 per cent of Australians in a referendum in 2023, was now inevitable.
“I think we’ll look back on it in 10 years’ time and it’ll be a bit like marriage equality,” she said on the Betoota Talks podcast.
“I always used to say, marriage equality, which took us such a bloody fight to get that done – and I thought, all this fuss – it’ll become something, it’ll be like, people go ‘did we even have an argument about that?’”
Mr Abbott said the Foreign Minister’s comments show a flagrant disregard for the failure of the Voice referendum in October 2023.
“This is a giant two-fingered salute to the voters of Australia, who resoundingly said no to a Voice,” he said.
“What Penny Wong has admitted today is ‘you’re going to get the Voice anyway if we stay in government’.
“The only language people like Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese will understand is being booted out, because if they stay the Voice is coming regardless of how we voted, whether we like it or not.”
Originally published as Federal election: Battle of the scare campaign emerges in dying days
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