Labor is putting on a master class of tax policy reform process. Via Domainfax:
Bill Shorten will vow to exclude 306,000 pensioners from his original plan in a bid to calm the storm over the impact on retirees who stand to lose tax refunds worth thousands of dollars a year.
…The revised policy, cleared by the Labor shadow cabinet on Monday afternoon, offers a complete exemption for 277,000 Australians on the full or part pension as well as another 29,000 people on allowances such as war widows’ pensions.
The new policy collects $55.7 billion instead of $59 billion over 10 years and after excluding the pensioners puts the financial burden on 893,000 individuals and self-managed superannuation funds.
A useless media is busy painting this as policy “back down” when it is actually excellent process. This is what you do to get reform done. Float your ideas in opposition, give stakeholders their say, adjust accordingly and build consensus so that when you assume government you have a mandate to enact your changes and see off the losing vested interests.
This can be usefully compared with the brain-fart and processless Do-nothing Malcolm Government which blurted out an 11th hour tax corporate cut to cover an empty policy cupboard at the last election. Then it bullied Treasury until it produced the numbers it wanted. Then flip-flopped all over until a foreign power did something similar presenting a chance for opportunistic revival. Then it enlisted the professional liars of the winning vested interests to sell it. Then it bribed the senate to get it over the line.
Hilariously, the PM is now projecting his own ineptitude onto the Opposition:
Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar called it an “humiliating backdown” for shadow treasurer Chris Bowen
“Labor’s retirees tax is rotten to the core and can’t be salvaged. Policy must be dumped completely,” he tweeted.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called it “real policy on the run from the Labor Party”.
It is any wonder that Do-nothing Malcolm’s incoherence ends with this:
Labor will take to the next election a pledge to repeal any cut to the company tax rate for Australia’s biggest businesses, but could retain the relief already in place for small firms at a cost of nearly $30 billion.
…Repealing below the $50 million threshold would require Labor to reverse a reduction already in place for some of the larger companies in that bracket – those with turnovers between $25 million and $50 million. Their tax relief is due to kick in from July 1.
An election commitment to repeal big business tax cuts would likely put the ALP on a collision course with corporate Australia, which would become more outspoken if cuts for major companies become law under the Coalition but then face the axe under a Bill Shorten-led government.
Sure, vested interests will be upset but guess who won’t be, voters, also via Domainfax:
Unions will seek to catapult school funding into an election-deciding issue by unleashing a campaign against vulnerable Coalition MPs based on polling that shows voters want increased spending on public schools instead of company tax cuts.
Hot on the heels of the Catholic school lobby’s intervention in the Batman byelection, unions will target marginal seats held by ministers including Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Attorney-General Christian Porter, along with 16 of their Coalition colleagues.
According to polling commissioned by the Australian Education Union, 83 per cent of voters in the targeted marginal seats rated public school funding as a decisive issue in casting their votes, compared to 41 per cent for a company tax cut – which the government is trying to pass this week.
That will have a much greater impact on productivity and competitiveness over time as well.
Hoocooodanode that good policy process would grant you the licence to govern?
