Labor ‘vows’ not to take the same franking credits policy to the next election

Anthony Albanese says the franking refunds policy definitely will be scrapped in its 2019 form.

Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese speaks to the media in Sydney last Friday. Picture: AAP

Labor leader Anthony Albanese says the party’s policy to scrap franking-credit refunds on share dividends definitely will itself be scrapped in its 2019 form before the next federal election, according to Sky News.

The federal Opposition Leader said that policy, which was taken to the May 2019 election and has been widely cited as a factor in Labor’s defeat, would be dumped in an interview with Sky News.

The plan aimed to abolish share-imputation cash refunds for some individuals and super funds had been expected to save the budget $5 billion, Sky News said.

Mr Albanese told Sky News political editor Andrew Clennell “we won’t be taking the same policy to the election”.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said on Saturday Mr Albanese should rule out the plan all together instead of putting the policy on “life support” by indicating last year it would be dropped.

Senator Cormann described the policy, which concerned cases where taxable income was insufficient to obtain a full franking offset, as “a tax which would have harmed many older Australians. In fact it is a tax which would also affect low-income older Australians.”