Angus Taylor quizzed on Dutton’s ‘no tax cuts’ U-turn
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor , has been questioned on why the opposition leader Peter Dutton , indicated before the election there would be no tax cuts before announcing a one-off $1,200 refund for 10 million Australians in the Coalition’s campaign launch on Sunday.
In a debate on ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday night, Taylor was played a clip of Dutton on the Today Show where he said “we won’t be able to provide tax cuts during this campaign”.
Taylor said it was a “short-term cost of living reprieve for Australians, meaningful, rebuilding the household buffers” rather than tax reform.
Chalmers said the Coalition are offering no ongoing help with the cost of living, pointing to the tax cuts passed just before the election as addressing bracket creep.
In the wide-ranging debate, the two politicians also sparred over housing policy and energy.
Taylor said the policy of allowing tax deductions for first home buyers of new homes will not just provide affordability but a pipeline of new housing. Chalmers said the Coalition would abolish the Housing Australia Future Fund, which would result in fewer homes being built.
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Updated at 16.30 EDT
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
Last night the treasurer and shadow treasurer turned up for a debate on the ABC’s 730 show – in case you missed the action, we’ve got the main points coming up.
One of our top stories this morning is an exclusive interview with the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, who has vowed to continue slashing the number of consultants employed by the federal government and to begin rebuilding departments within the public service if re-elected, while accusing the Coalition of importing a Doge-style agenda from the US.
Labor has pulled further ahead of the Coalition as the election campaign continues, opening up a larger lead in the latest Essential poll after two weeks of policy confusion and backdowns from Peter Dutton’s Liberals. A new poll in the Nine newspapers also shows Labor edging further ahead. More coming up.
After yesterday’s splurge of promises by the major parties to try to fix the housing crisis, experts have warned that Australia does not have enough construction workers and other trades to meet election pitches to boost housing supply.
Also today, the Greens will launch a new policy to provide free lunches for public school students. More on this soon.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank will release the minutes of its last monetary policy meeting at 11.30, shedding more light on why it did not cut interest rates earlier this month to relieve pressure on homeowners.
