Anthony Albanese rejects call to scrap major tax cuts

The Prime Minister has brushed off a call to scrap a major tax cut despite growing calls from the parliament to do so.

Anthony Albanese has hosed down calls to scrap tax cuts that would predominantly benefit higher-income earners, but stopped short of ruling out the possibility altogether.

The Prime Minister has been facing calls to revisit the tax cuts, which are due to kick in in 2024/25 and set to cost the budget $243 billion over the next decade.

Labor reversed its opposition to the third tranche of cuts last year after previously campaigning against them at the 2019 election.

But speaking to the National Press Club in Canberra, Mr Albanese said his position on the cuts remained unchanged.

Anthony Albanese has dismissed a call to revisit the stage three tax cuts. NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“People need to look at what happened with the tax cuts, which was that we actually tried to amend out the stage three of the tax cuts. And we weren't successful. And they were legislated,” the Prime Minister said.

“The parliament made a decision. The parliament made a decision to legislate those tax cuts, and we made a decision that we would stand by that legislation rather than re-litigate it, and we haven’t changed our opinion.”

Under the cut, the 37 per cent tax bracket will be abolished and the top 45 per cent bracket will kick in from $200,000. The 32.5 per cent bracket will be cut to 30 per cent.

The tax cuts will predominantly benefit higher income earners.

A parliamentary budget office analysis prepared for the Greens earlier this year revealed the tax cuts could cost $37bn annually by the early 2030s.

Asked later if there was any wiggle room to ditch the tax cuts in the future, Mr Albanese said he stood by his comments but noted the budget bottom line “face real challenges”.

“That‘s a reality of the fiscal position that we inherited of trillion dollars of debt. That remains something that we're doing our best to deal with.”

ACT Senator David Pocock has renewed calls for the government to scrap the stage three tax cuts. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Earlier, ACT Senator David Pocock said the government had a “strong case” to reconsider considering the current economic circumstances.

“We’ve had flooding and stagnant wages, and now people are in a cost of living crisis across the country,” he told ABC Radio.

“I just don’t think that we can justify handing out $240 billion over the next 10 years to the wealthiest Australians.”

Instead, Senator Pocock wants the money to be spent on raising the medicine rebate, the transition to clean energy, or raising the Jobseeker allowance.

Originally published as Anthony Albanese rejects call to scrap major tax cuts