PM denies ‘act of cowardice’ on tax cuts

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended Labor’s decision not to scrap the previous government’s tax cuts for the wealthy.

Greens leader Adam Bandt noted in the first year of the tax cuts, the top one per cent would get as much as the bottom 65 per cent combined.

“The top 20 per cent of income earners get around 80 per cent of the money,” he said.

Asked about it on Tuesday, Mr Albanese said the legislation came before parliament in 2019 and Labor had tried to amend it but lost by one vote.

“We at the time had to make a decision once we weren’t successful, whether we block or try to block all of the tax cuts for everyone,” he told ABC radio in Sydney.

“We didn’t vote against all of the tax cuts for income earners – stages one, two and three. We said at the time that it was ambitious to say you knew what the economy would look like in 2024.

“But there’s also the issue of certainty, which is there. These were legislated and are legislated tax cuts and we said that we wouldn’t seek to change them at the election.”

After it was put to him that it was an “act of cowardice” to not say to the Australian public that times had changed, Mr Albanese agreed he could have done that.

“But we didn’t say that. We said that it had been legislated and that we wouldn’t seek to undo that legislation; that we’d look at a whole range of other ways to grow the economy, to make sure that we could pay for our commitments,” he said.

“That’s the program that we took to the election and I’ve got to say that Adam Bandt had lots of opportunities prior to the election to say what he’s saying now, as well.

“The truth is that before the election, this wasn’t front and centre of the election campaign.”

The Prime Minister was also asked about JobSeeker after minister Amanda Rishworth said there would be no lift to JobSeeker in the October budget.

“We’ll examine JobSeeker and examine other payments each and every year, which is what you’d expect Labor governments to do,” Mr Albanese said.

“The last time we were in office, we had the largest ever increase in pensions in Australian history.”