It was only the second Question Time of the year, but already the exhausting hours appear to be bearing down on one of Australia’s elected leaders.
Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh struggled to stay awake during a second day of intense Question Time scrutiny into the third phase of the Albanian government’s tax cuts.
Sitting front and center behind the Prime Minister during Question Time on Wednesday, it was hard to miss Mr Keogh’s attempts to fight the kinks as the opposition bombarded his party with questions about its broken election promise.
About 30 minutes later, Mr Keogh appeared to fall asleep several times as Transport Minister Catherine King outlined the benefits of the changed tax policy.
On several occasions he rested his eyes and then blinked aggressively. At one point his head appeared to droop forward, before quickly snapping back up.
This all happened in the space of about four minutes, before Mr Keogh acted as if nothing had happened, engaging again, chanting ‘hear hear’ with his party and nodding along with their arguments.
Keogh’s moments of calm came as the coalition again bombarded the government with questions about further election promises made over the past two years.
They expressed concerns about whether the government would deliver on these promises, especially regarding negative gearing and franking credits, given the recent decision to change the tax situation in phase three.
Mr Albanese tailored the concessions to give a greater tax benefit to middle-income earners – at the expense of the city’s top end.
Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh struggled to stay awake during a second day of intense Question Time scrutiny into the third phase of the Albanian government’s tax cuts.
It was only the second Question Time of the year, but already the exhausting hours seem to be bearing down on one of Australia’s elected leaders
Under Labour’s new plan, high-income earners earning more than $200,000 will get a tax cut of $4,529 compared to what they currently pay – just $4,549 less than the $9,075 initially proposed by the Morrison government.
A worker with $100,000 in income would have received $1,375 in additional tax time under the original plan. Now they take home almost double that: $2,179.
And people earning $45,000 — who would have taken nothing home under last month’s policy — will now be $805 better off in July.
The benefits are starting to emerge for voters making $150,000 or less. On that salary, a person would have received a $3,975 tax cut under the original legislation. Now they’ll take home $3,739 instead.
Only 3.4 per cent of voters earn more than $180,000 – and Mr Albanese is betting that most Australians will be better off under his changes, and therefore more likely to forgive or ignore the fact that he has an election promise broken to make this happen.
Sitting front and center behind the Prime Minister during Question Time on Wednesday, it was hard to miss Mr Keogh’s attempts to fight the kinks as the opposition bombarded his party with questions about its broken election promise.