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Robertiton's avatar

"Although Scott Morrison is often derided as a fool, his tax reform strategy was a political masterstroke. The benefits to low- and middle-income earners in stages one and two locked Labor into supporting the entire package."

Morrison's strategy was only a masterstroke because he held an accurately low opinion of his opponents. A competent Labor opposition would have held their ground on the tax cuts and when the dust had settled, the Coalition would still have needed to deliver tax cuts. That senate vote on the tax cuts occurred in July 2019, just a couple of months after an election. The Coalition would have had another two and a half years of people "paying too much tax" while they did nothing, harped on about boring politics, reintroduced an alternative scheme or all of the above. But Labor had their confidence shattered by the election defeat and were a party divided, so they retreated into their standard defensive posture (at least this century) of saying whatever they think people want to hear and doing nothing different from the Coalition.

It's a disgrace they've broken this promise, and Albanese's word is worth nothing now; it's just less of a disgrace than if they'd kept the Stage 3 cuts.

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harry's avatar

"Without a new tax policy, the question isn’t whether Labor will retain (let alone expand) its majority but whether it will get a second term at all."

I don't always agree with your politics, John, but I must say this is an insightful observation - I wonder if Labor or the Treasury boffins saw it and took it up. The Albanese/Chalmers political calculus is that the tide was shifting against Labor because of cost of living issues. Solution: Ditch a firmly held commitment ("my word is my bond") to support the Stage 3 tax cuts, give that the lot hit (about 2 million voters) only half the nominal tax deductions they were expecting and to then give the proceeds in terms of extra tax cuts to low and middle income earners (nearly 12 million voters). The calculation: The votes gained among the 12 million through their increased after-tax incomes will outweigh the anger of the smaller group of high income tax payers plus the increased general contempt that people feel for lying politicians. Moreover, the resulting move beautifully wedges the LNP - are you going to reverse this piece of deception by increasing the tax take from the 12 million. It is masterful "soak the rich" politics and has a rich traditionalist Labor flavor to it. Certainly back to Labor politics prior to Hawke and Keating.

The deception also enticingly conceals bracket creep issues that continue to push more aspirational Australians into top tax brackets even though their real incomes have not increased. Some of the 12 million celebrants may come to regret Albanese's "generosity" but that will mostly come well after the next election when much will hopefully be forgotten

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