Labor accused of $379bn ‘tax bomb’ by Coalition

Anthony Albanese has been accused of hitting Australians with a $379bn ‘tax bomb’ as Peter Dutton launches a final Dunkley by-election push.

Opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor and Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Pictures: News Corp Australia

Anthony Albanese has been ­accused of hitting Australians with “nine new taxes” and a $379bn tax bomb the ­Coalition says is equivalent to slugging households an extra $40,000 as the opposition makes a last-ditch ­cost-of-living assault days from the Dunkley by-election.

While the Prime Minister has set up the by-election as a referendum on his stage three tax cuts revamp, the Coalition will on Thursday attack him over new analysis claiming Labor has stung voters with a raft of new taxes.

Mid-year budget documents show that since the 2022 pre-election economic and fiscal outlook, it is estimated the government will increase tax receipts by $378.8bn over five years to 2026-27.

The Coalition says the higher tax bill does not factor in the $28bn in additional receipts over the decades that Treasury expects following the stage three tax overhaul.

As Peter Dutton hammered Mr Albanese and Chris Bowen in parliament over Labor’s fuel ­efficiency standards plan, which he dubbed a “tax on family cars and utes”, opposition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor broadened the fight.

Mr Taylor said Labor had imposed six new taxes on superannuation, franking credits, tourists, farmers and truckies, with three additional taxes being designed around “family cars and utes, ­recycling and clothing”.

“The government is adding $379bn in more taxes on Australians. If we divided that evenly across all Australian households they would each pay around $40,000 more,” he said.

He added that as a result of high inflation, Australians were paying 27 per cent more income tax while their real net disposable income fell by 8.6 per cent in the past 18 months, which for an average ­income earner reduced take-home pay by nearly $8000.

The Coalition has yet to reveal detail of its counter tax proposal, which it promised would combat bracket creep and deliver a better budget bottom line.

A spokeswoman for Acting Treasurer Katy Gallagher rejected the analysis, saying the increased tax receipts demonstrated the high number of people coming off JobSeeker and beginning to pay income tax.

“Under Labor’s cost-of-living tax cuts, the average tax rate for the average taxpayer will be lower over the next decade compared to the Liberals’ plan and, as a result, over the next decade the average worker will pay $21,635 less in tax,” she said.

“The only tax policy we’ve seen from the Liberal opposition is the one announced by Jane Hume today that they will go back to the drawing board, which can only mean cuts to services or a reversal of Labor’s tax cuts.”

Mr Taylor said the government had “failed to tackle the source of the cost-of-living crisis”.

The Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, holds a press conference in Frankston last month with Senator Bridget McKenzie and the Liberal Party candidate for the Victorian Dunkley by-election, Nathan Conroy. Picture: David Crosling

As ALP and Liberal strategists said the Dunkley contest was narrowing, the Australian Electoral Commission on Wednesday revealed more than a third of voters in the southern Melbourne electorate had either early voted or lodged postal vote applications.

AEC figures show that of 113,517 eligible electors, 16,900 have ­already voted, with 21,400 lodging postal applications. The early turnout is tracking higher than last year’s Aston by-election, won by Labor. Mr Albanese said holding the seat would be challenging, given figures showing an average 7.1 per cent swing in by-elections.

He is facing pressure over his decision not to stay in Dunkley the night of the by-election, but said he wasn’t in Aston on the night of the vote for that seat in April.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said the opposition would “do every single thing we can to actually take this up to Anthony Albanese and to win the seat”, but would not put a benchmark on what swing the Coalition would consider a success.

Liberal MPs speaking on the condition of anonymity said any swing less than 2 to 3 per cent against Labor would be “a disappointment”.

Senator Hume, the opposition finance spokeswoman, said voters in Dunkley were “white hot with fury” at the government for being focused on issues such as the voice rather than the cost of living.

On the back of bumper personal income and corporate tax ­receipts and strong commodity prices, Treasurer Jim Chalmers last year ­delivered Australia’s first budget surplus in 15 years and has flagged the likelihood of announcing a second surplus on May 14.

Since the 2022 election, the Treasurer and Senator Gallagher have announced billions of dollars in savings and returned a chunk of tax receipts to the bottom line.