PM Anthony Albanese dodges Senate question on stage three tax cuts

Anthony Albanese has refused to say what he would be willing to offer to secure the smooth passage of his revised phase three tax cuts, as he danced around over whether he should apologize for breaking an election promise.

Under the revised plan, people earning less than $150,000 will receive a larger discount than originally promised, while those earning more will see a reduction.

But in the absence of the numbers in the House of Lords, the Prime Minister will have to strike a deal with the Greens or the Coalition to implement the changes before they come into effect on July 1.

Speaking on Sky News, the Prime Minister left the door open to negotiations with both sides as he was asked five times to give an ironclad guarantee that his plan would not change during the talks.

‘This is our plan. We will submit it to parliament. We will first submit it to the House of Representatives. We will present it to the Senate… We are committed to making our case, we have our plan,” Albanese said.

Under the new model, people earning less than $150,000 will receive a larger discount than originally promised, while those earning more will have their discount reduced.

But presenter Andrew Clennell pushed back: “I’m going to ask you to repeat this again, you’re not going to change this plan?”

‘We will submit our plan to parliament. That’s what we do,” Albanese said.

“And you have no intention of changing it?” Mr. Clennell examined it.

The Prime Minister said he was ‘hoping’ for support from the crossbench.

“We will talk to people across parliament… We will argue our case. It’s a good thing.’

Labor will need the support of the Coalition or the Greens and two members of the crossbench to approve the updated tax plan.

The changes would lower the lowest tax bracket from 19 percent to 16 percent for income under $45,000, and keep the 37 percent tax rate for those earning between $135,000 and $190,000.

The 45 percent tax bracket will now take effect for those earning more than $190,000, down from the planned $200,000.

The Greens have argued that higher earners should receive no tax cuts at all, which Mr Albanese has rejected, and have announced a fight against rents and jobseeker’s allowance.

Meanwhile, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said the coalition would wait to see the fine print before deciding whether to back it.

“Our position is that the tax relief that everyone has been promised in phase three is what people should be getting. That is our starting point,” Ms Ley told Sky News.

Mr Albanese has been unapologetic in his defense of the plan to rework the original phase three tax cuts, first introduced by the Coalition in 2019.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly spoken out in favor of cuts during the elections and in the eighteen months afterwards.

On Sunday he claimed that the decision to rework phase three was not in anticipation of the October 2022 or May 2023 budget, and that cabinet only agreed to the proposal last Tuesday.

He said it would have been “irresponsible” not to make changes after interest rate rises and cost-of-living pressures hit lower- and middle-income Australians hard.

But Ms Ley said Albanese should apologize to higher income earners who would be worse off.

‘He should apologize to those who will be worse off as a result of his broken promises… but more importantly, he should apologize to all those who will be left behind because he offers no living expenses and no economic plan. ‘

Further relief in the cost of living for households is also being considered before the May budget.

However, when asked on Sunday, Mr Albanese declined to give a hint about what Australians could expect.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley (pictured) called on Mr Albanese to apologize to higher income earners who would be worse off under his plan

He also would not say whether the Treasury Department has made any other recommendations after he instructed them over the summer to look at non-inflationary ways to provide relief.

“(Phase three is not) the beginning of our cost-of-living relief, nor will it be the end,” he said.

‘We continue to look at further measures we can take.’