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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has delivered an impassioned defence of his government’s tax policies, doubling down after days of criticism to declare the reforms are necessary to ensure “aspiration for all”.
Speaking at Victorian Labor’s annual conference on Saturday, in what was a soft launch of the party’s state election campaign, the prime minister toughened his stance about the need for controversial changes to negative gearing, capital gains tax and trusts that were unveiled in this month’s federal budget.
This masthead has reported that Albanese is open to tweaking how its changes affect testamentary trusts, drafted into wills, which the Coalition is attacking as a “death tax”.
But on Saturday, he signalled that Labor would plough ahead with the tax package overall and rubbished the broader backlash by saying that trusts were not an option for most Australians “working their guts out”.
“These Australians, millions of hardworking people, will never be able to access a trust. Never sat around a kitchen table and thought, have we thought of setting up a trust? I mean, seriously,” Albanese said.
“The biggest investment that the majority of Australians ever make and the biggest hope that they ever have is to work hard and buy a home of their own.”
Going off script at times, the prime minister repeated that Labor was the “party of aspiration”. He became visibly emotional as he described how young people were going to auctions and competing with bidders who could afford to spend an extra $30,000 on a property because of the deductions they could claim on their tax bill.
“We will not allow Australia to become a country where aspiration is only for some,” the prime minister said.
“Our reforms are about backing aspiration for all, bringing the great Australian dream of home ownership back in reach for a new generation. Our changes are pro-aspiration and pro-supply, so we can help people get into a home of their own.
“If people want to invest in property, use negative gearing and build their wealth, good on them. But from now on, there’ll be a distinction. They will also be investing in new housing supply.”
Across town in Caulfield at the Liberal Party’s state council, federal opposition leader Angus Taylor used his address to attack Albanese’s character, given the prime minister had repeatedly ruled out the sweeping tax changes before last year’s federal election.
“I think Australians are finally seeing Anthony Albanese for who he truly is, a man who occupies the highest office but hasn’t got the character or the competence to run the country,” Taylor said.
“He is incompetent, he is a liar.”
Taylor said the federal budget was a war on aspiration and would “crush the ‘reward for hard work’ spirit that underpins our nation’s success”.
Federal Labor figures have softened their language in recent days about how the new inflation model for taxing capital gains could adversely affect businesses that start from a very low cost base.
Assistant Minister for the Digital Economy Andrew Charlton said on Friday that start-up founders and small business owners had expressed “real concerns” and that the government was consulting them.
But Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the online meme campaign claiming the government’s tax plan would give them a 47 per cent stake in start-ups – a reference to the top marginal tax rate – was “essentially rubbish”. “We’re making a very sensible, very common-sense change,” he said.
The Albanese government’s post-budget sales mission has also been complicated by criticism from NSW Premier Chris Minns, who attacked his federal Labor counterparts for failing to hand back bigger tax cuts to workers. Taylor has vowed to do so by indexing income tax thresholds.
On Saturday, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan did not say whether she backed the idea of lowering the top marginal tax rate and lifting the minimum threshold. But she did back the principles behind Albanese’s speech.
“The prime minister and the federal treasurer are more than capable of speaking for themselves on their budget, but it is a budget that is about understanding that systems need to change for the future,” Allan said.
“You can see that federal Labor is working incredibly hard to make sure the settings are there to continue to support workers, to support families [and] help young people get into a home.”
At Victorian Labor’s state conference, Allan announced that her government would ask the State Electricity Commission (SEC) to set up an apprenticeship academy for 2000 electricians over four years.
She was flanked by apprentice electricians in khaki SEC shirts at her press conference, referencing the uniforms worn by SEC workers before it was privatised by former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett.
Allan’s announcement was made in front of her father, Peter Allan, who introduced her to the podium and told his story working as a linesman for the original SEC.
“She learnt that a good job through a trade meant a good wage, and it meant a future for everybody,” Peter Allan said on Saturday.
“She’s always stood up for the working classes. Even when she was a child, she used to get into trouble for standing up for her classmates who were being discriminated against.
“If she thought something was unfair, she’d stand up in the class and tell the teacher what she thought.”
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