“We are providing a bigger tax cut for more Australians. That means more Australians will pay less tax now and in the years ahead,” he said.
“If they oppose our tax cuts,Peter Dutton and the Coalition are supporting higher taxes for middle-income earners in their own electorates.”
The decision ahead for the Coalition
On Friday,Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the Coalition would make a decision on whether it would support the tax cuts once MPs have had a chance to examine the legislation,but he added he was concerned there was a “black hole” in the government’s costings.
“We’re analysing that at the moment,and we’ll make our announcement in due course,but I’ll give you this guarantee:taxes will always be lower under a Liberal-National government than they will be under a Labor government,” he said on Friday.
The income tax changes would cost more than $20 billion a year,roughly the same as the Coalition’s original plan.
The Grattan Institute analysis found that if a future Coalition government kept the bigger tax cuts for low and middle-income earners,and reintroduced the benefits it had planned for higher-income earners,the cost would increase to more than $30 billion a year,or $115 billion over a decade.
“If the Coalition decides the path of least resistance is to keep the new tax cuts for low-income earners and keep the old tax cuts under stage 3,then we’re spending another $10 billion on tax relief that the budget really can’t afford,and would actually genuinely put upward pressure on inflation and probably to further delay any cut in interest rates by the RBA this year,” Coates said.
Labor released its updated stage 3 tax cut legislation on Sunday night before parliament’s return on Tuesday,to give the Coalition,Greens and key crossbenchers time to examine the detail before negotiations begin in earnest in parliament.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he wanted the legislation passed in the next few parliamentary sitting weeks,well before the original stage 3 tax cut package would take effect on July 1.
“We want it passed during this session,which finishes up before Easter. But the sooner,the better,” he said on the ABC’sInsiders program on Sunday morning.
“This is legislation which people see,which will give every taxpayer a tax cut. And it should receive the support of every parliamentarian.”