Katina Curtis: Liars, thugs and tax cuts — as election nears, we can expect the mud-slinging to ramp up

The only certain things about the world are said to be death and taxes. But in an election year, the certainties morph into taxes and character assassinations. Make no mistake, despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s declaration he is a four-year kind of guy, this is an election year. He hasn’t even finished year two and is already having to look to what’s ahead. So too is Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who now has to flesh out a promise to have a comprehensive, fully-costed new tax policy that will be ready to implement “the moment we are elected back into government”. Both sides want to talk about tax at the moment. Labor MPs have returned to Canberra with a bounce in their step after Albanese’s bold move to reshape the stage three tax cuts. The Government is on the front foot, the Opposition conversely spent a fortnight talking around in circles or hiding, and the discussion moved the economic debate back onto Labor values. The latter has the added benefit of energising the ALP base, giving them something to fight for in the year ahead. Plus electorate offices are not being flooded with angry phone calls, generally a good indication of a policy landing well in public sentiment. But it’s not just the tax cuts. The final quarter of last year was particularly bruising for Labor MPs. They — and Albanese — needed a proper summer reset, and they appear to have had it. Along with the break and the new tax plan, Labor returns more battle-hardened. While all would have preferred to have won the referendum last year, it gave the new MPs and staffers the chance to experience an election loss without losing government. Dutton has made it clear he will step up the attack on trust and broken promises, even as his party agreed to wave through the tax cuts package. While the vast majority of Coalition MPs believe agreeing to spread the tax cuts more widely is the correct position, some would also have liked to make the Government sweat more for their support. Albanese and Jim Chalmers continue to dare the Coalition to vote against the tax plan while highlighting all the people — in increasingly niche segments — who will benefit from it. Opposition attacks on them for being liars and promise breakers are so far sliding off — but check back after they’ve been called names for six months or a year. In a fortunate bit of timing for Labor, they have been aided in repelling attacks by the airing of Liberal in-fighting in the ABC’s Nemesis documentary series. Malcolm Turnbull used his interview with the program to label Dutton a “thug”, which was gleefully repeated by ministers and interjectors throughout question time. Albanese likened Dutton to Jack Nicholson in The Shining, and followed up the next day by saying it couldn’t have been A Few Good Men. This prompted a rare theatrical inspiration for Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan, who leapt up to tell the PM: “You can’t handle the truth.” The character attacks go to a deeper battle: voters want politicians they can trust to make the right decisions, especially in unexpected or changed circumstances. Albanese and Chalmers frequently seek to highlight the contrast in economic indicators now with those under the Morrison government. Labor has to work extra hard to demonstrate its economic credentials because of the entrenched perception that the Liberals are the natural-born party of fiscal responsibility. At the moment, the Coalition approach is to shout loudly about trust and muddy the waters on the Government’s commitment to sticking with other policies such as negative gearing or the tax treatment of family trusts. Unfortunately, its own waters were muddied with deputy leader Sussan Ley told breakfast television: “You wouldn’t expect me to pull out one ingredient or one part of tax reform, so I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to play the yes this is good this is bad, the rule in, rule out (game).” And even as Dutton was branding Albanese the “liar in the Lodge”, he was decrying the state of taxation debate. “The difficulty is it’s hard to have a sensible discussion in our country on tax reform,” he said. It’s a sentiment widely shared among economists, politicians and business advocates. The Business Council of Australia has made a pitch in its budget submission to get a sensible national discussion started. Chief executive Bran Black floated the idea this could culminate in a post-election tax summit that is apolitical and builds on existing work including the 2010 Henry tax review. The whole idea is to eliminate the character assassinations and just leave taxes.