For lovers of a good euphemism, the past week really delivered. As the week began, the stage 3 tax cuts were variously on the table and under the spotlight. By Tuesday, they were set to be “redesigned” or “tweaked”.
On Wednesday, as the patient was wheeled out from surgery – having been on the table, under the spotlight getting a redesign – it was established that it had been “pared back”.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers finally pronounced the makeover a success, declaring that Labor had found a “better way” for stage 3 to be. Stage 3.2 nipped and tucked an adjustment for bracket creep, dressed up as a tax cut, to turn it into an election wedge, dressed up as a tax cut.
Last week the prime minister confirmed what many had been speculating – that his government had made the decision to abandon the controversial stage-three tax cuts. Now the opposition is calling for an early election, saying the decision breaks a promise to the Australian people.
Political correspondent Paul Karp tells Jane Lee why Labor’s decision to give more money back to most Australians is a political risk
As the Australian cricket team continued its dominant display at the Gabba, one Queensland politician quickly found his line and length against his political rival.
Peter Dutton’s initial response to Anthony Albanese’s revised income tax cuts suggests there’s little chance he’ll buckle like a West Indies batsman and back the plan when Parliament returns next month.
Despite his insistence that it’s a broken promise to tear apart the final tranche of the former government’s legislated tax cuts, the hip pocket benefit for the low and middle-income voters our major political parties consistently proclaim to represent seem difficult to push aside.
At least at face value. Political realities are very different.
The Liberal leader was quick out of the blocks after the Prime Minister unveiled the new policy, with the fiery rhetoric the nation has come to expect from him.
“I think the Australian public, at the moment, are really despairing about who really is the true Anthony Albanese, because at the moment we’re seeing a political charlatan,” Dutton told journalists in Brisbane.
If anyone can pick a line and run with it, it’s Peter Dutton. Even that description in and of itself may well sell his unwavering adherence to messaging short.
His campaigning during the Voice to Parliament referendum is just one recent example of his particular brand of politics.
“I just think most Australians don’t want a Prime Minister who looks them in the eye, tells them one thing, and then does completely the opposite,” Dutton told Channel Nine on Friday, after the tax cut announcement
Albanese has taken a political gamble in pulling the stage three tax cuts apart and reworking them to provide greater benefit to Australians earning less than $150,000 a year.
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