‘Time has come’: Shorten backs budget’s broken promise
Bill Shorten defended the government of Anthony Albanese, who was preparing to break his election promise due to the negative trend, arguing that justice should take precedence over past commitments.
It was widely reported Tuesday night that the federal budget would include changes to the negative gearing policy that allows homeowners to reduce their bills at tax time.
If that happens, Mr Albanese would break his repeated election pledge to leave these tax environments alone.
Mr Shorten, who stressed on budget night that any changes were hypothetical until they were approved, backed the policy he unsuccessfully implemented in the 2019 election.
“This is an idea whose time has come,” the former Labor leader told AAP.
By breaking his election promise on the tax, Mr Albanese’s government will repeat the action of Mr Morrison’s first term, when he redesigned phase three tax cuts to be more generous to low-income earners.
Mr Shorten, who later became a cabinet minister, enthusiastically supported the change.
“It turns out that tax cuts for more people are more acceptable than tax cuts for people who are already pretty well off,” he said.
“Because there were 13 million, 14 million winners and relatively few perceived losers, people thought that was pretty fair in the cost of living crisis.”
This is the same principle of fairness that Mr Shorten applies to any potential negative U-turn.
“The idea that someone with three or four investment properties would be bidding on a home with taxpayer support in their wallet, compared to a young couple trying to buy their first home, doesn’t seem fair to me,” he said.
Labor believes it will be rewarded by voters concerned about rising housing costs.
This is a different calculation than other infamous broken promises.
Bob Hawke’s 1987 election promise that “no Australian child will live in poverty by 1990” was overly ambitious and unachievable.
After winning the 1993 election, Paul Keating scrapped the tax cuts promised as “LAW” because there was no money.
Tony Abbott’s 2013 election eve promise of no cuts to education, health and public broadcasters was reversed as part of wider cuts in the 2014 budget.
And Julia Gillard’s declaration in 2010 that “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead” was a dead giveaway in negotiations to form a minority government.
Sean Kelly, an adviser to Labor prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Ms Gillard, argues that any broken promise can be powerful for voters because “it is a betrayal (and) it can have an emotional element”.
However, it is difficult to say how each center will play.
“When it comes to broken promises, there is no single transition rule. They all play out on their own terms… and it’s very difficult to take rules from the past,” he said.
In the case of Australia’s first female prime minister, Mr Kelly argues that other factors are far more politically compelling.
“Julia Gillard had Kevin Rudd behind her, a wall of misogyny and a minority government in front of her,” he said.
“In the absence of that, I’m not sure the promise of a carbon price undeliverable looks like it does.”
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