Will Albanese be bolder now? He's five moves away from greatness

Sydney Morning Herald

6 days ago

Howard plunged head first into negotiations over the GST after his near-death experience at the 1998 election, while Bob Hawke and Paul Keating (albeit after major reforms in their first term) held a tax summit in 1985, with Keating opting to champion (temporarily) the introduction of a broad-based consumption tax, or GST.
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The problem for Albanese is that few people believe he will abandon his small-target fixation. The most contentious reform Labor has proposed so far is a tax increase on super balances over $3 million, which affects a tiny percentage of people.
Changes to gambling advertising will be contentious, and other fights loom over access to cheaper childcare, the creation of a federal environmental protection agency and more.
It must be said, but Albanese's steady-as-she-goes approach is part of what got Labor over the line on May 3 – he was seen as steadier and less risky than Peter Dutton at a time when people were focused on paying their mortgage or rent, getting food on the table and making sure they could afford to enrol the kids in Auskick or Saturday soccer.
We know he supports Australia becoming a republic. We know he wants four-year federal parliamentary terms. The idea that the prime minister, so badly burnt by the defeat of the Voice to parliament, should pursue these two additional constitutional referendums may seem laughable. But with the right preconditions and handled in the correct fashion, it is not impossible. First, Albanese should only pursue these changes if he can seek and secure bipartisan support from both the Liberal and National parties.
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This does not mean that those two parties must also support both proposals – far from it – but rather, Albanese needs an undertaking that the parties will not use the two proposals as political weapons against Labor. Absent this, Albanese should not proceed. The vote could be held on election day 2028.
Cuts to the company tax rate, advocated for by former cabinet minister Ed Husic last term, are essential to maintain Australia's international competitiveness and to encourage more Australians to take a risk and start a business. The Liberals, under Sussan Ley, could be persuaded to back this proposal. And given that those tax cuts will need to be paid for, changes to the capital gains tax break should be part of the negotiations.
While the opposition is unlikely to back the abolition of the CGT discount entirely, it is surely worth at least discussing scaling back the discount to, for example, 25 per cent (from 50 per cent).
And on changing the date of Australia Day from January 26, an increasingly contentious day of grief and mourning for some and source of bombastic national pride for others, Albanese should lead a national conversation about the issue and pursue it if the opposition is willing to be sensible.
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Australia is one of very few colonised countries to have achieved independence and implemented a federated national commonwealth without having an all-in civil war. It was a significant and underrated achievement and one that should be marked. January 1, the day our constitution came into effect, is the obvious choice to replace January 26 – if the prime minister chooses to go down this path.
Halfway through the last term of parliament, after promising dozens of times that the Coalition's stage 3 tax cuts would be implemented unchanged, Albanese changed his mind. Australia's 31st prime minister had a light-bulb moment and realised that years from now, when he is long retired, he did not want to wake up one day and think 'thank goodness I implemented Scott Morrison's tax cuts in full'.