Peter Dutton rules out income tax cuts if he is elected Prime Minister

He has declared his fuel excise plan and push to tackle the cost of living by slashing migration a better deal for families.

Peter Dutton has ruled out offering income tax cuts.

He has declared his fuel excise plan and push to tackle the cost of living by slashing migration a better deal for families.

As the Prime Minister prepares to visit Government House on Friday morning to call an election for May 3, the Liberal leader has outlined his plan for the future in an interview with ABC host Sarah Ferguson.

The Liberal leader is proposing to halve fuel excise for 12 months to deliver immediate relief to families at a cost of $6 billion.

But he’s sticking to his guns on tax, confirming he will not only repeal Labor’s $5-a-week top up tax cuts but won’t offer any new tax cuts of his own.

“Now, you have taken the highly unusual step for a Liberal leader of rejecting, rather than offering, tax cuts. Can you confirm that there will be nothing further offered on income tax cuts during the election campaign?, 730 host Sarah Ferguson asked.

But the Liberal leader said the nation simply couldn’t afford it until he could clean up Labor’s deficit.

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“I would love to introduce tax reform and tax cuts, but the Labor Party has racked up what we now see in the Budget papers of about $1.2 trillion of debt,’’ Mr Dutton replied.

“So we have to be realistic and understand the constraints that we have. Now, the government put forward a plan which has relief for people who are really doing it hard now which starts in 15 months. It’s about 70 cents a day.

“Our plan is to reduce tax in another part of the family budget and that, of course, is in relation to the halving of the fuel excise which we think will be beneficial across the economy for pensioners and for uni students and for families running kids around and for small businesses. But we think there’s better economic bang for the buck. It’s also not baked in as a

structural spend in the budget.”

Mr Dutton confirmed on Thursday that if elected he will repeal Labor’s $17 billion top up tax cut which will offer workers $268 in relief in the first year and $500 in the second on an ongoing basis.

The ABC host then asked if that was “an absolute no for the campaign?” on further income taxes.

“We have a great desire at some stage when we clean up Labor’s mess, but we won’t be able to provide tax cuts during this campaign and I think, frankly, the Labor Party’s tax cuts are a cruel hoax on Australians,’’ he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“How is that not, to use your words, an election bribe in the same way that you’ve accused the government of bribing voters on their tax cuts?,’’ Ferguson asked.

“Because our benefit is now, it’s not promised in 15 months’ time,’’ Mr Dutton replied.

“I suspect if the Labor Party is re-elected, particularly given it can only be in a minority form with the Greens, that they end up walking away from some of these budget measures because they will have to redo their budget.”

Mr Dutton said his own plan “provides support to people now who are really hurting and I believe that waiting 15 months is more about a political stunt.”

Overnight, the Liberal leader also announced his national gas plan, introducing gas reservation for the east coast.

“You’ve named that price. When we will see gas at $10 a gigajoule?,’’Ferguson asked.

“We think by the end of the year it is about the timing,’’ Mr Dutton said.

“That’s something we’ve been working on with key figures in the gas industry, and we’ve been doing months literally of work in relation to how this will work because I think it’s transformative for the economy and, as we know, energy is the economy, and it allows us not just for consumers but for businesses, for manufacturers, for food manufacturers, for farmers.”