Australians could be promised further tax cuts ahead of the next federal election as the coalition attempts to promote the idea as a key battleground issue.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has undertaken not to vote against the government’s revised stage three tax cuts when they come before parliament, effectively clearing the way for the changes to come into law by July.
Under the plan, those earning under $150,000 would get a greater cut than under the original proposal, while those earning more will still get a tax benefit but less than previously forecast.
Mr Dutton and other key opposition members like deputy Sussan Ley say they will not stand in the way of relief for Australians doing it tough.
However, they have vowed to take further tax policy to the next election while remaining tight-lipped on specifics, saying any proposals must first be carefully considered and costed.
“$15 a week that you get in July this year – that’s it. That’s what the government was crowing about yesterday on their victory lap,” Ms Ley told Sky News on Wednesday.
“We’ll bring a policy in keeping with the intentions behind stage three tax reform, which were about addressing bracket creep and were about locking in support for aspiration for all Australians.
“But that will take sensible, detailed work.”
The support by the opposition comes after Mr Dutton previously challenged the prime minister to call an early election on the issue, after Mr Albanese pledged before the 2022 election to leave the original tax plan untouched.
But the prime minister said the coalition had false outrage over the tax cut changes when they were first announced.
“It shows they were disingenuous with all of their complaining because if they are fair dinkum, they’d not only vote against it, but they’d do what Sussan Ley said they would do which is to absolutely roll it back,” Mr Albanese told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday.
“They’re not fair dinkum. We made a difficult decision but it’s the right decision, done at the right time and all for the right reasons.”
The coalition will refer the legislation to a Senate committee before it passes parliament.
Mr Albanese said the stage three changes would overwhelmingly benefit Australians on average incomes.
“We’ll wait and see what the coalition come up with but we are focused very much on managing the economy,” he said.
“This is a better addressing of bracket creep than the original stage three proposal that help people at the very high end.”
Legislation enshrining the tax cut changes was introduced to parliament on Tuesday.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
