Peter Dutton must focus on election

There will be a temptation by some to misread the latest Newspoll results as a political pass for the Albanese government’s broken promise and new tax plan. The raw numbers show that 60 per cent of voters approve of the changes, with support by Labor and Greens voters over 80 per cent. The danger is that this will encourage the federal government to consider new reforms that seek to soak the rich and redistribute wealth to the less well off. Already there is discussion about changes to negative gearing, capital gains tax exemptions and other measures that Labor, when out of office, spoke out in favour of. Given the broken promise on stage three tax cuts, nothing the government says on the issue can be taken at face value. Greens leader Adam Bandt has made it clear there is no end to his party’s redistributive ambitions. These include free dental care, higher dole payments and increased rental subsidies. The problem is, as Margaret Thatcher famously observed, socialists will eventually run out of other people’s money to spend.

Anthony Albanese was clearly upbeat when he addressed colleagues in Canberra on Monday but he must be careful not to get carried away. As Dennis Shanahan has observed, the Prime Minister’s frenetic national travel and media burst since mid-December and the huge risk in breaking a foundation election promise have kept Labor’s support, and his own, where they were before the Christmas break. This was in decline on the back of a failed voice to parliament referendum.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Treasury was the real architect of the stage three tax revisions and, rather than easing the tax burden, they will deliver more money to government over the medium term. They will make the tax system more progressive and provide less tax relief than the legislated stage three tax cuts they are designed to replace. These admissions, to a cost-of-living committee hearing on Monday, provide plenty of ammunition for Peter Dutton for when parliament resumes on Tuesday. But the Opposition Leader must think carefully and avoid giving the Greens any opportunity to grandstand or make the proposed changes even worse. Mr Dutton must stay focused on the next election, where he must present a clear plan that rewards ambition and fixes the problems in the tax system Labor has failed to tackle. In the meantime, he must explain why people who currently pay the most tax should be celebrated, not derided. If we have learned anything it is that Treasury’s cost-of-living agenda ultimately takes more money from private interests to be administered through the government’s coffers.