The Federal Labor Opposition has decided that it will be opposing the vast majority of the Government’s plan to cut income taxes, calming that the proposal is both irresponsible and grossly unfair.
However, the Government is still hoping to win enough support across the bench to have the entire plan passed through the senate by the end of the week.
This first batch of the Government’s proposed 7 year tax plan would see low-income earners get $200 and middle-income earners getting $530 or more in tax returns after July 2019. Bill Shorten, the Labor Opposition Leader, said that Labor would vote for that part of the tax plan straight away as it would help with low wage growth and offset the cost of living for millions of Australians.
Mr Shorten demanded that the controversial bill be divided into separate sections so that they could be passed individually. However, the Government has insisted that it has no plan to break up the tax plan.
Instead, the Government is seeking to win enough support in the Senate without the support of Labor and the Greens.
Mr Shorten has pledged that if the Government wins in passing the tax plan then his government, if elected, would repeal the tax cuts. This could potentially be a key point of contention in the upcoming election, where Australians will debate the amount of personal tax they should be paying.
Mr Shorten was critical of the Government for promising tax cuts that take place so far in the future, referring to it as a “tax trick”. This is because large parts of Treasurer Scott Morrison’s tax proposal do not take effect until July of 2022.
The final part of the tax plan would take place in July of 2024 at which point everyone who earns between $41,000 and $200,000 would be paying the same tax rate.
Tim Storer, and independent senator, said that he had no plans to agree to the tax plan, siding with Labor’s view that it is a bad policy. Mr Storer said that the proposal would “handcuff future parliments” by making potentially “unaffordable” revenue reductions.
Mr Storer went on to describe the Government’s tactics as holding out a “pot of gold” at the end of a 7 year rainbow.
However, in spite of the lack of support from Labor, the Greens and Senator Storer, the Government says that it remains optimistic it will get enough crossbench support to pass the bill.