Topics: Income taxes surging under Labor; Federal Budget; Labor’s cost of living crisis; insurance policy

 

E&OE   

 

JAMES GLENDAY:

Now we are just over a week out from the Federal Budget which the Albanese Government plans to use to kickstart its election campaign. Senior Opposition figures are also starting to campaign in marginal seats. One of them is the Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor and he joins us now. 

Angus Taylor, good morning.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Good morning, James, great to be with you. 

 

JAMES GLENDAY:

You're planning a tour this week, what are you up to?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, I'll be in three different states across eight different electorates across Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, talking about the economic mismanagement of this Labor government and how it's trashed Australians’ standard of living. I'll be talking to small businesses. I’ll be talking to households. I'll be talking to community groups like food banks about what they're seeing, the challenges they're facing and what we're seeing, which is this extraordinary, unprecedented collapse in standards of living, the biggest of any of our peer countries and we see just today,  $3,500 of extra personal income tax is being paid and over 30% increase in the price  of groceries. These are the pains that Australians are suffering. We need a budget that restores Australians' standard of living, gets us back to the aspirational Australia that I believe in so firmly, reestablishes the fiscal guardrails that have not been in place since Labor has come to power. And all of that has meant we've seen inflation that has been above our peers, high interest rates and of course personal income taxes that have been surging remarkably.

 

JAMES GLENDAY:

Okay there's a bit to go through there but let's just start on that income tax. You're releasing some figures today showing Australians are paying more tax than last financial year.  Part of that's because wages are going up, I'm presuming but I just want to get to the crux of it. Are you putting these out because you're flagging a new round of income tax cuts if you win the election?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we're putting them out to make the point that Australians’ standard of living has collapsed under Labor, James, and we've never seen this kind of collapse before. 7.9 % in just over two and a half years and this is not what we've seen in other countries around the world. This is homegrown, just as our inflation is homegrown.

 

JAMES GLENDAY:

It was quite a specific question. Sorry to interrupt. I mean, if you win the election, are you going to cut income taxes?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we've been very clear that we'll reestablish the fiscal guardrails that include a tax to GDP cap, something that we had in place when we were in government and that Labor got rid of as soon as they came to power. I mean, this is how you manage the economy. You set yourself basic rules, you move to them over time, you make sure you're continually working towards that. That's not what we've seen under Labor. We've also announced significant important tax initiatives for small businesses, accelerated depreciation, FBT exemptions where appropriate. All of these things are designed to get our economy back going again. Businesses investing, jobs being created that allow for rising incomes, rising wages.  That's good economic management. It's not what we've seen under Labor.

 

JAMES GLENDAY:

So, you're just talking about bracket creep this morning. The fact that wages are going up, therefore people are paying more tax because more people are moving into higher income tax brackets. Some of your colleagues like the idea of lower taxes. Is that something that you're working on behind the scenes that you're going to roll out in the election campaign and say, hey, yep, we're going to lower income taxes for Australians?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, everyone on our side of politics believes in lower simple-efficiency taxes, James. That is absolutely fundamental.

 

JAMES GLENDAY:

But are you going to do anything about it? 

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, I know you want me to announce our election policies on your program this morning.  But the best thing to do about it, the most important thing and the first thing you've got to do is beat inflation. And I've got to say this government has failed to do that at a pace commensurate with others around the world. Our core inflation has been higher for longer than our peer countries.  We do have to re-establish a tax to GDP cap, and we will see what's in the budget. I mean this government has hidden spending all the way along.  No doubt there'll be more.  Jim Chalmers, whilst we all feel very much for those who have been impacted by Alfred, Jim Chalmers is already blaming all sorts of things for his budget position and his failure on economic management.  We'll see what's in the budget, but we will always fight for lower, simpler taxes for Australians as we last did in government with stage one, two and three tax cuts.

 

JAMES GLENDAY:

Alright, we're hoping to get the Treasurer on the show this week to talk to us about the budget and he can respond to some of that. I just wanted to tell you there was a story in The Australian newspaper last week that some of your colleagues were unhappy with you specifically and the Opposition's economic policy offerings. Why have you not announced more policies yet?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we've announced lots of policies and I've started to go through them, re-establishing the fiscal guardrails that ensure that you've got strong economic management, making sure small businesses have incentives to invest through accelerated depreciation and raising the cap on that accelerated depreciation, fixing the housing supply in this country through the Housing Infrastructure Fund and getting rid of unnecessary red tape, James.

 

JAMES GLENDAY:

But why are your colleagues whispering about you in The Australian newspaper, which is sort of the place where conservatives go when they're unhappy.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, know, James, the one thing about this job, and I'm sure it's true of your job, is you get a lot of free advice. You get a lot of free advice. And, you know, that is the nature of what you and I do. But I tell you, the free advice I'll give the government right now is that they have overseen a trashing of Australians’ standard of living. Right now, their plan is that it doesn't get restored till 2030 or 2031, James. I mean, this is diabolical for Australians.

 

JAMES GLENDAY:

Yeah, you've made that political point a few times. Just before I let you go, because we are nearly out of time, can you clear one thing up for us? Is the Coalition looking at breaking up insurance companies if they're engaging in anti-competitive behaviour?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

We've been very clear all along. We will take action against anti-competitive behaviour where there's evidence that that may have occurred in the past. We will take action with sensible policies like we have with supermarkets. Today, we see that supermarket prices, groceries have gone up over 30% since Labor came to power. That's why we have backed in those policies hard. I've done the same when we were in government on energy.  We're not at that position on insurance companies, we are always prepared to act if it is clear that there's abuse of market power or any competitive behaviour that's hurting Australians and that's why we're taking the policy we are on supermarkets and hardware to the next election, just as when we were last in power we took strong action against unacceptable behaviour in the energy sector.

 

JAMES GLENDAY:

Alright Angus Taylor, I'm sure you'll get plenty of free advice after this interview as well. Thank you so much for joining News Breakfast.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Good on you James.

 

ENDS.