Opinion: Why Albanese needs to get real on tax cut talk | mrseankelly
Last Thursday, the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas asked the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, whether he thought the stage 3 tax cuts – the ones that are absurdly generous to richer Australians – were needed. Chalmers began to give his usual answer, that the tax cuts are already legislated. Karvelas: Were they needed? Chalmers said: “If we didn’t think they were, we’d have a different approach to it.”
There is a more purely logical problem with the argument. Its implication is that the parliament is so powerful that, once done, its work cannot possibly be undone. But if the parliament is so powerful, surely it can do whatever it likes? And if it can’t, doesn’t that make it impotent? Which is it? Then there is the make-up of the parliament itself. The teal and Green MPs are certainly the most dramatic story of the past election. It is not clear, yet, whether their presence represents a tipping point in our politics – what author Tim Dunlop has
Is the parliament important or unimportant? Is the parliament a symbol, or a body with a practical operation as a venue for accountability and the passage of important legislation? Are the teals historically important or the product of a moment? The answer to all of these may be “both”, and that is fine. What the government must avoid is running from one extreme to the other depending on circumstance.
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