Taylor's tax tactic
As Labor clings to its super tax, the Liberals are still searching for an economic agenda. One idea that might have helped was killed off before it even got a hearing.
When the Liberals eventually get around to their review of the 3 May election bloodbath, they might want to begin with the policies that never saw daylight — and ask themselves why.
Capital Brief revealed today that former Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor had been pushing for an inflation-linked tax rebate in the months leading up to Peter Dutton’s budget reply. If inflation jumped above the Reserve Bank’s 2-3% target, taxpayers would automatically get relief.
But Dutton’s office binned it in favour of a populist 12-month halving of fuel excise — a move that appeared to impress precisely no one, including the mythical outer-suburban Labor voters who were supposedly going to sweep Dutton into power.
According to its detractors, Taylor's policy was overly complicated and would have struggled to get cut through. But proponents argue it was sensible policy and shrewd politics. Unlike other indexation policies, his pitch came with a built-in fiscal brake: no cost to the budget unless inflation ran hot.
