Albanese has to revert to true Labor policies he once backed

Anthony Albanese during his announcement on stage three tax cut changes. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

At long last, the Albanese government can start being a Labor government. The broken promise on tax cuts and knowing that Albanese’s word is no longer binding means a lot that has constrained Labor in office is now gone. Labor has been unshackled, even as critics say the leader’s integrity has been smashed.

Breaking election promises is de rigueur for most politicians.

Even John Howard had his “core” and “non-core” promises that eventually made the straight-shooter look mean and tricky. The difference, to be fair, is that Albanese made authenticity and integrity his brand; I’ve seen few fake sincerity better.

The Prime Minister will be hoping his broken promise isn’t a repeat of Julia Gillard’s admission – “yes, it’s a carbon tax”. Her excuse, just like Albanese’s, was “circumstances changed”. Sound familiar? Albanese told the Labor membership and loyal voters that simply winning the election and being in government was a sufficient end in itself. He is the champion of small target and Morrison mimicry.

He’s now got a little over a year until the election needs to be called. He needs no more half measures; instead, he must dust off the Labor policy platform and start being a Labor government. He needs to govern as if he is running out of time, because he is.

He needs urgency, not lethargy. No more jetlag, just more talking to voters in shopping centres.

He needs to lead a Labor government, not a Morrison legacy project. Albo knows he’s on the nose with voters, so he worked hard over Christmas. Then last week, for a $15-a-week tax cut, he sold his last remaining asset, that his word was his bond. Who knew he would go so cheaply?

His strategy was to wedge the Liberals on the eve of the Dunkley by-election. That now looks to have failed as the smart and hungry-for-government Liberals are poised to match the tax cut for middle Australia and return to attacking the PM’s integrity.

Albo has again been outfoxed by Dutton. He was already aloof and all too often absent, but he now stands accused of being a liar. He is shuffling the deck chairs in his office but unless he changes, no amount of Yes people will improve his performance.

For all the damage done, the $15 a week is calculated by economists to be about one-tenth of the increase in the cost of living for people under the last 18 months of the Albanese government. People know their mortgages have gone up by much more, so have rents and insurance products. The weekly grocery shop for the basics has gone up by much more than $15 a week. Yet Albanese expects bouquets for his broken promise. My fear is the voters are waiting with brickbats.

Albanese needs to start with the negative gearing rort and reprise other Labor policies he once stood beside in 2016 and 2019.

It’s simply not fair that it’s easier to buy your second or third property than your first in Australia. The PM is a rent lord and multi-millionaire investment property owner but it’s time for him to pay the rent, pay his share.

But Albo shouldn’t stop there. Capital gains tax changes and franking credits need to be part of the conversation. While at it, why wouldn’t he start taxing the huge multibillion-dollar untaxed gains in residential property, including the family home? When everyone owned one, it might have made sense to leave it untaxed. Now it represents a massive redistribution from the have nots to the haves, as some accumulate multiple homes while many others will never own one.

Albanese’s relationship with his Treasurer is by all accounts shredded after last week. Chalmers told colleagues of the broken promise: “Tails I win, heads he loses.” It was tense before, but apparently they simply aren’t speaking any more. Chalmers is the intellectual future of Labor. Albanese should stop holding him back from a full tax reform agenda.

Chalmers is ambitious to be prime minister, but also ambitious for Labor. His political smarts in not appointing Wayne Swan to the Future Fund and instead Greg Combet shows political maturity. Albo and Jim ran out the line “it’s not our position to change” in response to calls to revisit negative gearing. Well, haven’t voters heard that so many times in the past 18 months?

For Labor it must all now be on the table. It’s about time we had a Labor government in Canberra really tackling the crippling cost-of-living crisis and delivering genuine Labor tax reform.

Cameron Milner is director of GXO Strategies.