MARK RILEY: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s tax porkies will come back to haunt him
MARK RILEY: Anthony Albanese told disenchanted voters he would be a prime minister who kept his promises. With that now exposed as a lie, what does he have to offer them?
Two months before the 2022 election, Anthony Albanese took to a podium at Sydney’s Lowy Institute to deliver one of the most consequential speeches of his leadership.
Before a collection of the country’s leading political and foreign policy figures, the then-opposition leader delivered a commitment to revive integrity, accountability and honesty in government.
“To serve as prime minister of Australia is a rare privilege,” he said.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“If successful, I am determined to restore a greater sense of responsibility to the office of prime minister — a deeper respect for the Australian people and for the integrity of our democracy.
“Real accountability — and delivery.
“I will lead a government that keeps its promises.”
This was the central undertaking of the Albanese Government.
After a succession of governments who said one thing before an election and did another straight after, his Government offered renewed hope to disenchanted voters.
It would be different.
This week it proved it is not.
Far from it.
Those voters will now see it as just another lying government.
The decision to not just break but obliterate its exhaustive promises not to change negative gearing and capital gains tax arrangements on property investments will change voters’ perception of this Government in a profound way.
The attacks on the implications of the policy change itself will be severe.
But not nearly as severe as the long-term damage the abject breach of faith will inflict on the Government’s reputation.
Pauline Hanson claimed at a characteristically chaotic post-Budget news conference this week that the intent of the change was nothing short of pure communism.
It’s not.
But it is pure socialism.
It is part of an evolving Albanese Government strategy to realign the tax system to favour labour over capital.
This Budget eases the tax burden on people who earn and increases it on those who own.
Almost all the tax relief is targeted towards wage and salary earners and almost all the tax hikes are on investments.
The creation of the Working Australians Tax Offset gives the Government a mechanism to increase that realignment over time, with or without the more substantial changes to the tax scales that will be required to address the progressive erosion of wages through bracket creep.
The WATO will start at $250 but not until 2028.
That is the pay-off for workers.
But there is a greater cost. A political cost.
Chalmers and Albanese insisted this week that they were compelled to break their promise on property taxes because the despondency of young potential homebuyers had grown in the year since the election.
That is true. And it was patently obvious well before the election that it would happen.
That is why Albanese was asked so many times whether he would change negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions.
On each occasion he said no.
When governments consider backflipping on policy, their strategists are instantly concerned about what they call “quote banks”.
It’s a term they use to describe the collection of statements politicians have made on the record, committing not to do the thing they are about to do.
On this policy, the Albanese Government’s quote bank is full to overflowing.
Asked at a doorstop in Cairns a month before last year’s election whether he would rule out changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, a particularly snippy Anthony Albanese shot back: “Yes! How hard is it! For the 50th time!”
And there is an embarrassing abundance of other examples of denials given with equal insistence.
I reminded Chalmers at the National Press Club this week that voters had taken the Albanese Government at its word.
They had heard previous governments promise “there will be no carbon tax” and “no cuts to the ABC, no cuts to the SBS” and then proceed to do those things.
They had also heard John Howard famously promise there would “never, ever” be a GST.
But at least Howard did the honourable thing and took his changed policy position to the people at the 1998 election.
The Albanese Government didn’t do that last year.
Instead, it misled voters.
And no consequential speech will prevent it from paying a heavy price for that.
Mark Riley is the Seven Network’s political editor
