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Anthony Albanese has indicated he won’t back down on the contentious “stage 3” tax cuts by the May 2023 budget.
Asked on Monday if he was conceding his position on the policy could change next year, the Prime Minister said: “Well, no”.
“There’s been no change in our position,” Mr Albanese told ABC Radio.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly said Labor’s position on the cuts hasn’t changed but he had refused to rule out the potential for future amendments to the legislation.
“I know I keep getting asked in different ways the same question but the answer is the same. We haven’t changed our position,” Mr Albanese said on Monday.
“What we’re doing is getting on with the immediate cost of living pressures, which are there as well.”
Senior ministers have also publicly stuck by the line of “our position hasn’t changed” during a week in which speculation arose over whether the policy would be amended.
Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman said on Monday the government had been open with Australians about the economic pressures facing the country.
“Now, we are in that period, two weeks out from the budget, where everything will be speculated on,” he told Sky News.
“I accept that as part of the media cycle, but our policy hasn’t changed. That’s what I’m saying to all of your viewers.”
Jim Chalmers last week stirred debate over the stage 3 cuts before he delivers the Albanese government’s first budget later this month.
The Treasurer wouldn’t rule out changing the tax cuts or paring them back amid division within Labor over the policy’s $243bn cost at a time when the government is facing significant fiscal pressures.
Labor supported the Morrison government to legislate its three-tier tax relief package in 2019, with the party now split over whether it should break its election promise to keep the third tranche of cuts.
The cuts, which are due to come into effect in 2024, would create a 30 per cent tax bracket for anyone earning between $45,000 and $200,000.
The Coalition will frame any changes to the policy as a breach of trust.
Resources Minister Madeleine King reaffirmed Labor’s position on Sunday, backing Mr Chalmers’ comments that it was an election commitment to provide tax cuts to middle-to-high income earners.
“These stage three tax cuts are legislated,” Ms King told Sky News.
“What I would say is obviously there’s a conversation going in the community that’s okay to have an open discussion about that tax or any other tax.
“But right now, this government is not planning anything.”
