Jim Chalmers: Aussies earning over $45,000 WILL benefit from tax cuts

Aussies earning over $45,000 will have their taxes slashed in 2024 after Treasurer Jim Chalmers slapped down union demands to cancel the upcoming cuts.

Dr Chalmers said it was Labor’s intention to keep the third stage of tax cuts which were passed in 2019 after the country’s biggest trade union pushed him to scrap them.

The stage three tax cuts are controversial because, unlike the first two stages which are already in place, they will benefit the wealthiest Australians the most.

From July 2024 a politician on $211,250 will get a tax cut of $9,075 while a registered nurse on $72,235 will get a tax cut of $681, a bus driver will get $461 and a chef will get $321.

Ahead of September’s jobs and skills summit, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) had released a list of economic demands including rent controls, higher taxes on company profits, and scrapping the stage three income tax cuts.

Chefs are set to save $321 a year when the stage three tax cuts come into play in 2024

But Dr Chalmers shot down the union plan in an ABC radio interview on Thursday. 

‘We intend to leave them in place,’ he said of the cuts.

Dr Chalmers said the only tax change Labor is contemplating is a crackdown on corporate tax avoidance.  

‘We think that there are steps that can be taken now in the tax system particularly in relation to multinational tax avoidance,’ he said.

‘That where our priorities should be.’

This table by the Australia Institute shows how much Australians can expect to save from stage three tax cuts in 2024

Dr Chalmers said the ACTU’s suggestions do not reflect government policy but accepted their right to submit ideas.

‘The whole point of having a summit like this is to bring people together to see if there can be common ground found,’ he told ABC Radio National on Thursday.

‘It would be pretty strange if we said, ”come along to a summit and only bring along ideas which have been pre-approved by the government”.

‘That’s not in the spirit of the summit, not the spirit of the way the government operates.’

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was invited to attend the summit but said on Wednesday he would not go, labelling the event a ‘stunt with the unions’.

Nationals leader David Littleproud accepted an invitation.

Dr Chalmers said Mr Dutton was going out of his way to divide people and ‘wreck consensus.

Bus drivers are set to save $461 a year when the stage three tax cuts come into play in 2024

‘I think his behaviour in the last couple of days has isolated himself, humiliated himself and it’s already split the coalition,’ he said.

But Mr Dutton on Thursday reiterated his stance, confirming he would not attend.

‘(Jim Chalmers) sent the invitation to me by email (and) 25 minutes later he dropped it to the press gallery, so if you don’t see that as a stunt then I don’t know what is,’ he told ABC radio.

‘If people think this is an accord in the modern age, it’s not. It’s a wish list from the ACTU about higher taxation.’