Prime Minister Anthony Albanese makes surprise move on tax cuts for rich Aussies
Prime Minster Anthony Albanese has been accused of leaving “wiggle room” over calls to repeal tax cuts for the rich.
National
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been accused of leaving “wiggle room” over calls to repeal tax cuts for the rich that will deliver a worker on $200,000 a year a whopping $9000 tax cut.
Mr Albanese insisted today that he had “inherited” the Morrison government’s legislated tax cuts and that his government had not changed his mind on the 2024 timetable.
It comes amid speculation that the Albanese government could leave the tax cuts in place but slap a deficit levy over the top for high income earners.
The stage three cuts create a flat tax rate of 30 cents in the dollar for anyone earning between $40,000 and $200,000.
According to the Australia Institute, a registered nurse on $72,235 will get a tax cut of $681 under the changes while a politician, on a base salary of $211,250, will get a tax cut of $9075.
Scrapping the tax cuts could save $243 billion in the budget over the next 10 years but would break an election promise.
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In a limp defence of the massive tax cut for the wealthy, Mr Albanese failed to make the case at the national press club for the tax cuts, describing them as “inherited”.
“We actually tried to ‘amend out’ the stage three of the tax cuts,’’ Mr Albanese said.
“And we weren’t successful. And they were legislated. And what we said at the time, if you go back and look at the comments that I made, I said at the time that it wasn’t wise to consider that you knew in 2019 exactly what the economy would look like in 2024-25.
“But the parliament made a decision. We made a decision that we would stand by that legislation rather than re-litigate it, and we haven’t changed our opinion.”
Mr Albanese was then asked if it “wasn’t wise then, have you got the courage to argue why it’s not wise now?”
“We made those statements then and we weren’t successful. We weren’t successful at the time. We inherited it, and I said that we haven’t changed our position,’’ he said.
Channel 10 journalist Peter van Onselen then asked if that didn’t leave some “wiggle room”.
“I sensed a bit of wiggle room in your answer. Unusual for a politician. During the election campaign Labor promised it wouldn’t repeal them. Is there an iron-clad rolled gold promise, or any circumstances you can envisage in this term of government doing anything at all that would resemble repealing the stage three tax cuts?,’ Mr van Onselen asked.
“We stand by the comments we made,’’ Mr Albanese replied.
“We failed by just one vote to make a difference there. But we face, of course we face real challenges. That’s a reality of the fiscal position that we inherited of trillion dollars of debt. “That remains something that we’re doing our best to deal with.”
Senior government sources insist there are no current plans to war game a deficit levy or propose changes at the next election.
Originally published as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese makes surprise move on tax cuts for rich Aussies
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