Treasurer opens the door to fresh tax cuts
Fresh tax cuts could be on the table at the Albanese government's August reform summit that Treasurer Jim Chalmers has signalled he will use as a springboard to go further than the policies Labor took to the last election.
Chalmers used a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday to flag Labor would go beyond the commitments it made before the May 3 election, which included a 2 per cent tax cut, as part of a productivity overhaul but stopped short of endorsing specific new policies.
Tax reform, the Treasurer said on Tuesday, should lift productivity, simplify the system and improve intergenerational equity as well as 'lowering the personal tax burden and increasing the rewards from work.'
Labor used a summit in 2022 to build support for a raft of union-friendly industrial relations changes and it has scheduled a three-day Productivity Summit for August where it will assemble industry, economic, social and political leaders to plan fresh reform.
'As the PM made clear here, delivering our commitments in housing and energy and across the board is the best place to start – but it's not the limit of our ambitions,' Chalmers said. 'They're a foundation not a destination.'
'We have a mandate to deliver the policies and plans we took to the election, and a duty to build on them.'
At a press conference in Melbourne on Wednesday, Coalition finance spokesman James Paterson said the opposition acknowledged the system could be more efficient and was prepared to discuss tax reform as long as it did not increase rates. But he cautioned Chalmers could be planning to raise taxes instead.
'Jim Chalmers is like the arsonist pretending to be a firefighter turning up to put out the fires that he and the Albanese government themselves set in their first term,' Paterson said.
Chalmers said that plans from the summit would have to be in the national interest, budget neutral or positive, specific and practical.
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