Coalition to savage Labor tax wobbles

The Morrison government will use the resumption of parliament to attack the ALP over indecision about legislated income tax cuts.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The Morrison government will use the resumption of parliament to attack the ALP over indecision about legislated income tax cuts, after Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles said the party did not want to “stand between people and a tax cut”.

With MPs and senators descending on Canberra for a parliamentary sitting week, Josh Frydenberg said there was “more confusion from Labor on taxes” over its position on removing the 37 per cent tax bracket from 2024.

Labor has criticised stage three of the package – which flattens the maximum tax rate to 30 per cent for all workers earning between $45,000 and $200,000 – but is yet to decide whether it will go to the election repealing the measures.

Mr Marles told Sky News that Labor had questioned the efficacy of the government’s package because the tax cuts were a “long way into the future”, in a break from other Labor figures decrying the package as unfair.

“Our instinct is we don’t want to stand between anyone and a tax cut,” he said.

“If you look at the decisions that we’ve taken in this term of government, in relation to legislation that’s been put before the parliament, that’s where we’ve stood.”

The federal Treasurer took aim at Mr Marles, given that Labor hasn’t backed the government’s income tax package.

“Labor’s tax hike on Victorians is a sign of things to come from federal Labor,” Mr Frydenberg said.

Labor frontbencher Clare O’Neil, meanwhile, said it was “not Labor’s policy” to make the low and middle income tax offset a temporary measure, signalling that Labor would make the tax break permanent.

The House of Representatives will be dominated by the budget over the sitting week as the government pushes through its budget appropriation bills.

Among legislation to be pushed will be an income tax exemption for grants given to farmers and small businesses after storms and floods earlier this year and a rise in the low-income threshold for the Medicare Levy. The government will also seek to legislate a government-guaranteed home loan scheme that would let more than 125,000 single parents own a home on a less than 2 per cent deposit.

The scheme will be capped for those earning under $125,000 a year, with a ceiling on property values based on capital city and state-­averaged market valuations.

In Sydney, this would see single parents requiring a deposit of just $14,000 based on a property worth $700,000, down to $5000 for a home in regional South Australia worth $250,000.

The Your Future Your Super bill, which is aimed at holding underperforming funds to account and limiting multiple ­accounts that cost workers in fees, will also be introduced in the House of Representatives.

The Coalition is under increasing pressure to make significant changes to its proposed superannuation bill, with employers and unions jointly demanding the Senate reject it outright and a key crossbencher, independent sen­ator Rex Patrick, calling for substantial amendments.

Allegations that a former Liberal staffer, Brittany Higgins, was raped in the parliamentary office of the then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds is also set to become a key topic of Senate estimates this week.

Labor sources say their senators will push government officials over the timeline and details of ­reports into the incident by the ­secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Phil Gaetjens, and by the Prime ­Minister’s chief of staff, John ­Kunkel.