The Albanese-Chalmers tax cuts to all Australians will mean an increase for 5 million taxpayers

Don’t be fooled, the Albanese-Chalmers tax cuts for all Australians will actually mean a tax increase for five million taxpayers.

The biggest lie that the Albanese-Chalmers government is trying to sell, is that it is still delivering a tax cut to all taxpayers.

The biggest lie that the Albanese-Chalmers government is trying to sell, is that it is still delivering a tax cut to ALL taxpayers – only, that the cut for higher income earners will be smaller than previously planned.

No, what it is proposing is a straight-out tax increase on anyone earning more than $145k; and an increase that gets to be quite punitive around an income of $180k.

This can be shown most easily if it doesn’t get to change the tax scales before the end of the financial year; or indeed if it doesn’t succeed in rolling back Stage 3 at all, as to do that, it needs the votes of at least two of the mixed, assorted senate crossbenchers in addition to ALL 11 Green senators.

As of July 1 the legislated tax scales of Stage 3 kick in; most particularly the 37c tax bracket goes; people earning more than $135k would finally see in their weekly or monthly pay-packets the lower tax promised, and legislated, back in 2019.

Therefore, if after July 1, Labor finally managed to get a roll-back of Stage 3 through the senate and into law, those some 5m taxpayers would see their tax go up and their weekly/monthly pay-packets fall.

After July 1, Labor’s Stage 3 tax cuts will mean a tax increase for many Australians.

Labor’s proposed tax increase would be clearly revealed as what it is: a tax increase on those taxpayers.

This is not like the usual political situation where an incoming government after winning an election has to decide between going ahead with its and/or the departing government’s promises.

Will we stick with the departing government’s Stage 3 tax cut proposal – even if we’ve committed to doing that – or do something different?

No, Labor is proposing to change existing, legislated, tax scales; to very specifically increase the tax payable by people earning more than $145k – these days, nothing remotely close to being a ‘high’ income.

And further, and critically, to quite deliberately reimpose the theft of bracket creep by creating a 37c tax bracket at $135k in place of the current (legislated Stage 3) 30c.

This is about, quite deliberately bringing back punitive bracket creep – even if our mathematically and economically-challenged PM wouldn’t have a clue.

This is also about quite deliberately hitting the rich – defined by our less-than-dynamic duo as anyone earning more than $190k.

And this is about quite deliberately trashing serious and sensible reform of our income tax system.

The one thing it is absolutely not about, is delivering so-claimed “cost-of-living relief”.

It is at best a Band-Aid; in reality it is both an actual negative and likely to exacerbate the savage attack on ALL Australians of the portfolio of mad, bad and thoroughly dangerous policies that individual ministers are off frolicking with.

Meanwhile, earth has a message to the Teals: you are utterly irrelevant to whether or not the government gets to ditch Stage 3.

You are all in the House; the government has a majority in the House. It doesn’t need you; it needs a couple of your fellow-travellers in the senate.

But then, they have demonstrated that they are collectively not too bright, exactly.

Originally published as The Albanese-Chalmers tax cuts to all Australians will mean an increase for 5 million taxpayers