Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr has questioned why the federal government is spending $40 million to sell the Australian people on revised stage three tax cuts.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tweaked the tax cuts to benefit everyone, not just high earners, despite promising not to change the plan legislated by the Coalition in 2019.
Before the changes, a person earning $200,000 a year would have received a tax refund of $9,075. They will now receive $3,375 instead.
Similarly, under the previous tax plan, someone earning $60,000 would have received a refund of $375. After the change, they will receive $1,179 instead.
Albanese faced intense scrutiny following the January 25 announcement, with opposition leader Peter Dutton describing him as the ‘liar in the Lodge’.
Now Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has confirmed that $40 million will be spent over two financial years on an advertising campaign explaining the stage three tax cuts.
Nat Barr was joined by Neil Mitchell and media commentator Amanda Rose on Thursday morning to discuss the government’s $40 million campaign to sell the reworked stage three tax cuts.
‘Why do we need someone to sell us the tax cuts we’re going to get on our taxes?’ she said.
Mitchell said the amount of money allocated to the measure, which Gallagher described as a “public information campaign”, was “rubbish”.
“Just what we need, more advertising, and I bet coincidentally all these ads appear right before the election,” he said.
Rose agreed and said it was “absurd.”
‘Remember the government said ‘everyone wants this, everyone needs this, this has been supported’, so why do you need to spend $40 million to convince people that you have said you are already convinced? ‘What did it need to happen?’ she said.
‘It’s absurd to spend our hard-earned money to make them look better instead of a backflip and a lie.
‘How about they spend their own money doing it?’
Mitchell said the move was simply to “win an election.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese modified the tax cuts to benefit everyone, and not just high earners, despite promising to keep the cuts as legislated in 2019.
Ms. Gallagher unveiled the $40 million campaign during Senate estimates on Wednesday afternoon, describing it as “pretty routine.”
“We have a responsibility to ensure that there is accurate information about the changes that will take effect on July 1,” he said.
Funding has been allocated for the next two years.
It comes after Dutton confirmed he would not stand in the way of Albanese’s new tax cuts, despite harshly criticizing the prime minister for his broken promise.
“We are supporting this change, not to support the Prime Minister’s lie, but to support those families who need help now because the Labor Party has made decisions that have made things much more difficult for those families,” he said.
“We will bring a major tax policy to the next election that will reduce taxes for Australian taxpayers because we know a lot of support will be needed to help Australian families recover from this Labor period.”
What Dutton’s tax policy might look like won’t be revealed until closer to the next election.
