Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says reformed stage three tax cuts will benefit “middle Australia”

The Prime Minister has ruled out boosting welfare payments in crossbench “trading” to pass Labor’s tax cut reforms.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ruled out increasing welfare payments to secure crossbench support for his stage three tax cuts.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, he maintained the policy was “the right decision,” and an appropriate response to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 supply chain issues, persistent inflation and rising interest rates.

“What we have targeted here is middle Australia,” he said.

“Those middle class working families who have done it tough because of rising inflation (and the) cost-of-living.

“This program is aimed directly and squarely at them.”

While the tax reform has the support of ACT independent senator David Pocock, he’s called on the government to use the surplus money to increase welfare payments – which Mr Albanese said wasn’t possibly because the reform would deliver no “surplus money”.

Although the Prime Minister didn’t rule out further income support, he said he would not be “trading” policies.

“We stand by this package, which stands by itself as a good thing to do to ensure that every Australian gets a tax cut, not just some,” he said.

“Every budget we give consideration (to welfare), but what we’re not going to be doing here is trading.”

The Prime Minister made the comments while in Orange, where he visited the site of the Orange Conservatorium & Planetarium. Picture: X/@AlboPM

The Prime Minister has faced increasing criticism for abandoning his election promise to maintain the legislated cuts, which guaranteed substantial tax breaks to Australians earning more than $120,000.

Instead, the new measures will see the government redistribute the previous tax breaks, and redistribute it to workers earning less than $150,000, with the average Australian set to get a tax cut of more than $1500.

This comes as the government is set to introduce the reforms once parliament resumes in the first week of February.

Although Labor’s tax reform has been widely criticised by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton – who went as far to demand Mr Albanese call an early election – Mr Albanese has indicated he is willing to negotiate with the Coalition and cross bench.

“We’ll wait and see. We’ll wait for them to go through their mechanisms as well. We’ll talk with all of the cross benchers,” he told reporters on Friday.