Labor’s surprise budget tax cuts for every Australian have been rushed into law, delivering the average worker roughly the equivalent of a cup of coffee a week starting next year.
The move will force the Coalition to either drop its opposition to the $17 billion cuts it termed an “election bribe” or head out on the federal election campaign trail with a pledge to repeal them.
In the meantime, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is reportedly seeking to go head-to-head with Labor on cost of living with a $6 billion cut to fuel excise to be announced in his budget reply speech tonight.
But last night it was Labor’s tax cuts – worth $268 to a worker earning $79,000 next year and $536 the year after – front and centre on a busy final sitting day for the Senate term.
They passed with the support of the Greens and the opposition of the Coalition senators but not without criticism from the minor party.
“These tax cuts will barely scratch the surface for people struggling to pay for food or rent, will not come into effect for 15 months, and will save low-income workers only 73 cents a day, which would not even cover one cup of coffee per week,” the Greens said.
The opposition didn’t speak on the bill in the Senate but Dutton staked out his position in an interview with 9News political editor Charles Croucher earlier in the day.
“I think what Australians saw last night was a cruel hoax,” he said.
“It’s 70 cents a week in 15 months’ time.”
In pictures: The federal budget newspaper front pages
Dutton said cost of living relief, home ownership, and national security were priorities for the Coalition but wouldn’t commit when pressed to reveal whether his opposition to the tax cuts meant his party would be going to the election on a platform of higher taxes than Labor.
“We’ll have the budget in reply response on Thursday, as you point out, and we’ll save our detail for then,” Dutton said.
Some of that detail came out overnight in The Sydney Morning Herald, which reported Dutton would be announcing a one-year fuel excise cut 50.8¢ to 25.4¢ per litre, which he estimates would save a one-car household filling up once a week about $14 a tank.
“If elected, we will halve fuel excise for 12 months,” Dutton told the newspaper in a statement.
“We will deliver this cost-of-living relief immediately – whereas people have to wait 15 months for Labor’s 70 cent-a-day tax tweak.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday said the country could afford the Labor tax cut while Treasurer Jim Chalmers termed Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor’s opposition to them a “brain explosion” that “makes the choice at this election absolutely crystal clear”.
Adjourning the Senate until May, by which time the election will certainly have been called, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher took one last chance to criticise the opposition.
“We’ve seen tonight what we’ve seen this entire term, those opposite, opposing everything we’re trying to do to help households,” she said.
“Tonight, they have opposed taking action on gender equality in the workplace. They have voted no to keeping the NBN in public ownership. They have voted no to fee-free TAFE … they have voted no to tax cuts for every taxpayer.”
Dutton delivers his budget reply speech tonight.
