Australia politics live: Liberals ‘tightening the screws on themselves’ on tax policy, PM says, as they aim to dodge Labor wedge | Australian politics

Wentworth independent MP Allegra Spender says she will back the changes to the stage three tax cuts after consulting with her community:

Of the nearly 1,700 people who responded to our community survey, more than two-thirds backed the decision to re-shape the tax cuts, including many people who will be worse off as a result. So many people have spoken to me about how they’re struggling with cost-of-living pressures and these changes will give them support when they really need it.”

Spender says that around of quarter of the survey respondents wanted to retain the original Stage 3 proposal and 30% supported other measures to address cost-of-living pressures.

Oh and for those wondering, Scott Morrison said he would be leaving parliament at the end of February – which would be the last sitting week scheduled for this month.

So don’t expect any last speeches this week.

Being a Tuesday, there are the party room meetings to get through before the parliament actually gets down to the business of sitting.

That will begin at noon (ASDT)

In the meantime, here is Firstdog’s take on the annual first sitting day:

Liberals ‘tightening the screws on themselves’ over stage three, PM says

The transcript for Anthony Albanese’s first press conference of the parliamentary year has just lobbed, and it included this last answer to a question on the Liberals and stage three:

[The Liberal party have] been tightening the screws on themselves as they tie themselves in knots. First they said they’d fight it. Then they said they’d roll it back. Now they say they’ll have a different position completely. Then they say, ‘Oh, we’ll wait and we’ll decide in weeks to come’.

We provided the legislation to all of the parliament. We’ve said very clearly, there are two options here. Our option is to give every taxpayer a tax cut; is to overwhelmingly benefit low and middle income Australians; is firmly targeted at middle Australia, as well as providing economic benefits. It’s the right decision done for the right reasons at the right time. And that’s what we’ll be advocating in the parliament.

Parties consider stage three changes with Dunkley byelection in mind

The argument the Coalition is shaping up is that Labor is only making changes to the stage-three tax policy because the Dunkley byelection is in about a month’s time and it is all geared around that.

There is some truth to that, in terms of timing. The Dunkley byelection will be a tough one for Labor to win – Peta Murphy held the seat (which is not naturally a Labor seat) through her personal appeal with electors. But voters are suffering under a slowing economy and the government is seen as being slow to act on cost-of-living relief, and that is a fairly easy argument for the Liberals to mount at the byelection.

Labor, though, also has an eye on the coming election. The Albanese government honeymoon is well and truly over and the loss of the voice referendum marked a shift in voters’ goodwill. And so, the government is acting, by doing something on a policy that never truly sat right with it.

But that is not to say that there is nothing in the Coalition’s arguments about bracket creep. Because there are people who feel that too. And nothing seems to win a tax argument in Australia like the thought that you might miss out on something you could eventually reach (Howard’s battlers, franking credits, ma-and-pa investors etc).

So it is an old playbook, reimagined.

Senator says Coalition will create new tax policy going forward

Earlier this morning, the Liberal senator Andrew Bragg had a chat to ABC radio RN Breakfast where he firmed up the Coalition’s position on stage three.

The short version; they won’t stand in the way of the changes, but will create new tax policy moving forward.

I don’t think we should stand in the way of Australians getting a tax cut. But the problem here is that it’s a tax cut today, but higher taxes in the future because, of course, bracket creep will guarantee that more Australians, when they do more work, more hours, more shifts, will ultimately pay more tax in the long term, which is why we abolished the 37 cents in the dollar threshold in the first place.

… We have to make the important point here that returning a tax bracket into the system, i.e, a new tax, which is the 37 cent threshold, is a very bad idea because it would damage aspiration.

And so we don’t believe that that should be part of our policy, and that’s something that we’ll consider between now and the next election.

‘Rally against reckless renewables’ outside parliament

Outside the parliament and there is the “rally against reckless renewables” protest which is well under way.

Lots of red ensigns about and YouTube journalist Rukshan Fernando, who became somewhat of a hero to the anti-lockdown protest movement, has been spotted walking around parliament with the ‘UAP senator Ralph Babet.

It is going to be one of those days.

Australian Republic Movement sends well wishes to King Charles after cancer diagnosis

The Australian Republic Movement has also sent its well wishes to King Charles following the monarch’s cancer diagnosis.

The national director and CEO, Isaac Jeffrey, said it was “an incredibly challenging and private time for any family” and thanked the king for raising public awareness.

I wish Charles the best for his treatment, and a speedy and complete recovery. I send our thoughts to him, Camilla and their family.

On the stage three tax cut changes that all indications point to the Coalition supporting, Simon Birmingham said:

We believe that tax reform as we legislated was important to achieve and we still believe it is important for the future. Let’s remember that the stage three, the Coalition had legislated in government, was abolishing the 37 cent in the dollar tax bracket*, outright eliminating bracket creep for the vast majority of working Australians. Labor’s proposal keeps that 37 cent in the dollar. It keeps bracket creep and therefore actually grabs an extra $28 billion from Australians over the next few years in extra tax the government will take.

…Our concern is for Australian households, and we want to see every household pay as little tax as possible and get whatever they can in terms of support for the huge pressures they are facing right now and that they’re facing as a result of what adds up to some $8,000 on average, that they are worse off over the last 12 months alone.

*Just a reminder that the original stage three tax cuts, passed by the Turnbull government while Scott Morrison was treasurer, left the 37c bracket where it was. It was the Morrison government changes which scrapped the 37c bracket and also changed the 32.5c bracket to 30c (done while Josh Frydenberg was treasurer)

Turnbull argued at the time that the changes made by the Morrison government made the tax system more costly without making it more equitable.

Birmingham on Yang Hengjun sentence

The Liberal senator Simon Birmingham was out and about early this morning, getting ahead of the day. He told ABC News Breakfast he expected “strong and direct” action in response to the suspended death sentence Australian academic Dr Yang Hengjun was given by a Chinese court:

It’s important that, in every single engagement our prime minister, our foreign minister and all our officials have, the case of Dr Yang is clearly laid out for the Chinese. The anguish and anger that exists across Australia should be made clear and felt in Beijing, and the expectations of Australia that he ought to receive treatment that ultimately enables his release and return to Australia need to continue to be made clear.

Now, we will be seeking briefings in the normal course of events as an opposition to understand the behind-the-scenes steps and how these decisions can best be calibrated. But it is critical that we make sure Australia’s feelings are heard, and that in no way in the days, weeks, months or if need be, years ahead, should this case be allowed to slip from mind or from advocacy.

Back to ‘broken promises’

And of course, someone asks about “broken promises” on the stage-three tax cuts.

Anthony Albanese says:

I went to the National Press Club and said very clearly that the government had changed its position because of cost-of-living pressures. I was quite clear about us changing our position and why we were doing it. I note – I note – the various reports today saying that the Liberal party has changed its position on stage-three tax cuts.

If this is carved in stone, how is it that they have changed their position?

If they are fair dinkum, then their response must be to not only oppose what we are putting forward with our legislation we’ll introduce today, but to promise to roll it back.

Unless they do that, then it’s all just wind. It’s all just politics. What we are about is people, not politics.

I watched this whole debate away from Canberra and it all seemed quite far away. Do we want governments to react to changing circumstances or do we want them to be bound by arbitrary promises the press gallery elicit during election campaigns that are increasingly about gotcha moments?

Because who is that actually serving? Every government breaks election promises. Some are just better at the sell.

And when the broken promise has an adverse effect, sure, go nuts. But if the “broken promise” actually creates better policy that helps more people – isn’t that what we want?

Watching the fallout of a government announcing it was changing a policy that was created five years ago among Canberra watchers and comparing that to the reactions of normal people was, as you could expect, chalk and cheese. The biggest reaction I got while on the Gold Coast was “what’s stage three?”.

PM asked about Uluru statement

Back to domestic matters, Anthony Albanese is asked whether his government is still committed to the other parts of the Uluru statement from the heart – truth and treaty. The commitment was for the whole statement to be acted on, but once the voice went down in the referendum, truth and treaty appeared to have been shelved. Albanese says:

What we’re committed to is what we said during the referendum. What the voice to Parliament was about was making a practical difference on housing, on health, in education, on all of those measures.

We’re looking at ways in which we can advance those. We’re doing work particularly on employment, making sure that real jobs are created with real training and real skills to lift up opportunity for First Nations people.

We’ll be having more to say when we respond to the Closing the Gap statement which we’ll be doing in coming weeks.

‘What we won’t do is conduct diplomatic negotiations through the media’

Anthony Albanese sticks to his habit of not doing diplomacy through the media and says any action Australia takes will be conveyed directly to China:

We will respond very directly to China. We’ll respond directly and clearly and unequivocally to China. What we won’t do is conduct diplomatic negotiations through the media. That’s not what we do. We’ve made our position very clear. The details of which we will make directly to China.

China has been told of ‘outrage’ at Yang Hengjun verdict, PM says

‘We want to see his majesty return to full duties as soon as possible,’ Albanese says

The bells have stopped tolling and Anthony Albanese is speaking outside St Andrew’s. His first comments are about King Charles:

All Australians will be sending their best wishes to King Charles for a speedy recovery. This is difficult news, and we hope for King Charles, for his majesty, and for all of their family, all the very best. We want to see his majesty return to full duties as soon as possible. We of course look forward to the commonwealth heads of government meeting held in our region. And of course, we have invited King Charles to visit Australia, and we sincerely hope that that is able to occur.

The first parliament sitting of the year church service is complete and, once the bells stop ringing, we will hear from the prime minister.

‘Price gouging’ report due

The former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Prof Allan Fels AO will hand his report into “price gouging and unfair practices” to ACTU secretary Sally McManus today.

The ACTU commissioned Fels to undertake an inquiry into Australia’s prices, back when big wigs were pretending that the record profits corporations were making were just one big coincidence and the real inflation driver was workers’ wages. We are all pretty across what the report is going to say, I think.

Since then, the Albanese government has ordered its own inquiry into the prices of Australian supermarkets, so I don’t know, maybe everyone who was pointing to the record profits Australian businesses were making was on to something.

King wished a speedy recovery

The Australian Monarchist League has wished King Charles a speedy recovery in response to the news he has been diagnosed with cancer.

The AML, which includes former Liberal senator Eric Abetz, said “the prayers thoughts and best wishes of all Australians of goodwill* will be with the King of Australia and his family as they face this health challenge together”.

*Nice caveat there

Interest rate decision due

Just in case there wasn’t enough on today, it is also RBA meeting day, which means we will get another interest rate decision.

Turns out the data has caught up to what people were already feeling – inflation is slowing but so is the economy (who would have thought that forcing people who pay for housing to pay more for that housing through either interest rate or rent hikes would mean that they would have less to spend in other parts of the economy and that would have an impact?!) so no one is predicting the RBA will raise rates today.

Instead, the experts expect a hold or a decrease in rates, which is not as outlandish as it seems, given that there had been expectations earlier in 2023 that by the end of 2023, rates would begin to trend downwards again.

That didn’t happen, which means the focus is on the early part of this year. Given we are in a cost-of-living crisis that seems to be driven by housing, there are going to be a lot of eyes on the RBA for the next 12 months.