‘Imminent’: Albo says election will be called soon, as Coalition vows to repeal tax reforms
Anthony Albanese has signalled when he plans to call the federal election, as his extended tax cuts passed the Senate – but the Coalition has other ideas.
Federal Budget
Don't miss out on the headlines from Federal Budget. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Anthony Albanese says he will call the federal election “soon”, just hours after his extended tax cuts passed through the Senate with the support of the crossbench.
Speaking to ABC radio on Thursday, the prime minister was asked when Australians will head to the polls. He laughed and said, “it’ll be soon … I’m sick of being asked … Keep an eye on the Australian flag on the white Comm car.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced the tax cuts when he tabled the federal budget on Tuesday, which would give Australians up to $268 on their tax bills in the 2026-27 financial year, and up to $536 every year after that.
The cuts were widely criticised by the Coalition, with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor slamming it as a “cruel hoax” and an “election bribe” because families will have a maximum of $10 extra per week.
However, the bill passed the upper house on Wednesday night with no debate.
The Coalition vowed to repeal the cuts, if they win government at the forthcoming election.
Speaking to 2GB on Thursday, Mr Dutton said the $17bn cost of the tax cuts was better spent on fuel excise policy.
“We think the more efficient spend of that money is in relation to the announcement we’ve made this morning reducing by 25 cents the price of petrol and diesel,” he said.
He then told Nine’s Today program that Australians would feel immediate relief at the bowser, rather than in 15 months time when the tax cuts take effect.
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor told the ABC “absolutely we will repeal them”. He also denied the fuel excise proposal was an election bribe.
“This is temporary, it’s very targeted, it’s responsible and it’s focused on that group that we think are under the most pressure at this time given Labor’s cost-of-living crisis,” he said.
“What Labor is doing by doing something permanent is telling us we’re going to have a permanent cost of living crisis.”
Mr Taylor said the Coalition’s proposal would save a two-car household about $28 a week, or $1500 a year.
Speaking on 3AW on Wednesday, Mr Chalmers denied the tax cuts were an election grab, saying the focus was to recognise the cost of living pain felt by Australians.
“I don’t take any outcome in the election for granted,” he said.
“The purpose of the tax cuts is to provide cost of living help … primarily economic objectives.
“If you take care of the economic objectives, the politics will take care of themselves.
“We recognise that even though we’ve make a heap of progress in the fight against inflation … we know people are still under pressure.”
”.
LAMBIE CHOKES BACK TEARS
Amid the fallout, Senator Jacqui Lambie choked back tears as she confronted Liberal Senator Jane Hume in a wild confrontation ahead of the Coalition’s federal budget reply on Thursday.
Speaking on Sunrise, Senator Lambie took aim at the Coaliton’s previous cuts after Senator Hume blasted Labor’s budget as being shortsighted.
Her voice began to shake as she asked Senator Hume if there would be cuts to Veterans Affairs and public servants under a Coalition government.
“Jane, I want to know this … Are you going to go in and start cutting Veterans Affairs again?” she asked.
“Are you going to put (those jobs out) to consultants? Because you took a lot of my mates out (with your cuts) and spent $20 billion of taxpayers’ money on consultancy firms.
“Are we going back to those days, Jane?
Her outburst prompted Senator Hume to remark, “I have no idea what you’re talking about” before adding, “God help us.”
‘DOESN’T UNDERSTAND’: TAYLOR BLASTS CHALMERS
Earlier, Mr Taylor told the program that Mr Chalmers “doesn’t understand” the financial pressures families face.
“You’re an Australian family with a mortgage, typical mortgage, you’ve paid an extra $50,000 that you didn’t expect to pay in after tax income. And the notion that this even begins to deal with the real challenges that Australian families are facing in hard working families who have got a mortgage is just nonsense. And Jim Chalmers doesn’t get that. You’ve got to manage the economy.
“At the end of the day, if the economy doesn’t live, deliver for hard working Australians, there’s no amount of this sort of stuff that can make up for it. And that’s the
fundamental problem. And it’s why what we saw in the budget, we’re not going to get back to the standard of living we had when Labor came to power. Until the end of the decade. And that’s simply not good enough for Australians. They can’t afford another three years of this.”
PM STAYS MUM ON ELECTION DATE
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, meanwhile, stayed mum on the election date on Wednesday morning.
When asked by Sky News host Peter Stefanovic if he would call the election now, or “sell the budget for a week and then call”, Mr Albanese avoided the question.
“You’ll have to wait and see, but bear this in mind Pete, you might recall that Peter Dutton was calling on me to call an election this time last year in order to stop the tax cuts going ahead for every taxpayer.
“He wanted me and you to get a tax cut, but your listeners to not get one.
“We know that he’ll cut everything, he’ll cut education, he’ll cut health, but he won’t cut your taxes.”
With the next federal election due to be called within weeks, Labor’s fourth budget sprayed modest handouts across the economy, including a $150 energy bill rebate, slashing $5.60 from the maximum cost of medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and a boost to GP bulk billing.
But the spending came at huge cost to the budget bottom line, which is forecast to be $42.1bn in the red in 2025-26, with accumulative deficits over the next four years to total $179.5bn.
This is partly fuelled by the tax cuts, which will cost $17bn in their first three years, averaging about $7bn once in full effect.
At no time in the next decade is there an expectation the budget will return to surplus, with medium term showing it will still be in the red by 2035-36.
Inflation is forecast to rise slightly to three per cent next financial year, further dampening hopes of a second interest rate cut for mortgage holders in the near future.
The following three years inflation is due to moderate to 2.5 per cent, which Mr Chalmers said on Tuesday was “comfortably” within the Reserve Bank of Australia’s target band six months earlier than previously forecast.
Gross debt will also grow to $1.02trn in 2025-26, sparking $28bn in interest repayments, growing to $1.22trn by 2028-29, with an interest bill of $41bn.
Taking into account so-called “off budget” measures — big ticket items like building the NBN, housing funds and loan facilities — classed as “investments” the budget is actually forecast to be $65.1bn in deficit for 2025-26.
This includes $2.3bn in loans and investment in the heavily delayed Snowy 2.0 hydro project, $232m in Labor’s home equity scheme and $1bn in investment for the National Broadband Network.
In his speech on Tuesday night, Mr Chalmers painted the budget as building on the “progress” made in the last three years and a “plan to build Australia’s future”.
“This Budget is our plan for a new generation of prosperity in a new world of uncertainty,” he said.
Mr Chalmers said the income tax cuts, which reduce the current 16 per cent tax rate on incomes of between $18,201 and $45,000 to 15 per cent in 2026-27, and then 14 per cent in 2027-28, were in two stages to ensure they were “affordable” and did not spark inflation.
“We’re doing what we can afford to do, we’re providing as much help as we can as soon as we can in the most responsible way,” he said.
Asked what a voter would be able to buy with a mere $5 a week, Mr Chalmers said he understood there was “always an appetite for governments to provide more help”.
“There’s enthusiasm from this government to do as much as we can,” he said.
Mr Chalmers said the current cuts, along with other measures like a 20 per cent reduction on HECS student debt, making fee-free TAFE permanent and expanding the Help to Buy scheme would all specifically help young Australians doing it tough.
He denied the tax cuts were a cynical political play to undercut the Coalition ahead of the election, insisted future Labor governments would look to further return bracket creep to taxpayers in the coming years.
The Coalition announced on Tuesday it will not support Labor’s tax cuts, saying they “do nothing to address the collapse in living standards” over the past three years.
Revenue hits to the budget include a $165m in foregone revenue from freezing the beer excise, a $90m loss from application fees due to the temporary ban on foreign investors purchasing Australian homes and a $7bn from lower tobacco sales over five years.
Labor also appears to have squirrelled away a multi-billion dollar election promise war chest in “decisions taken but not announced”.
Of the total $40bn in “contingency” about $26.1bn is for potential cost blowouts for existing programs and policies, while of the remaining $14.7bn a large portion is expected to be the as-yet unfinalised hospitals agreement with states and territories.
Mr Chalmers said the economy was “genuinely turning the corner” after years of high inflation and sluggish growth, insisting the “soft landing” Labor had been aiming for was “now looking more and more likely”.
Wages are expected to grow at a rate of 3.25 per cent for the next two financial years, before increasing to 3.75 per cent by 2028-29.
Treasury has forecast unemployment will remain at 4.25 per cent over the next four years.
Labor is also clinging onto its goal of building 1.2 million homes over five years, despite new dwellings currently only being constructed at a rate of about 180,000 a year.
Housing pressure is expected to continue with the net overseas migration forecast for 2024-25 blowing out by 75,000 to 335,000.
For 2025-26 the government is expecting the rate to drop to 260,000, which is 5,000 higher than was estimated a year ago.
More Coverage
Originally published as ‘Imminent’: Albo says election will be called soon, as Coalition vows to repeal tax reforms
Read related topics:Anthony Albanese
Join the conversation
Warning on early voting for May 3 election
The election has been called, politicians have made their opening pitches and the campaign trail has begun. But what happens now?
Read more
‘No tax cuts’: Huge call on brink of election
Peter Dutton has used a key pre-election speech to detail how he will reduce energy bills and divert gas into Australia’s energy grid, but rules out tax cuts.
Read more