Opposition leader Peter Dutton has hinted he could scrap plans to reverse changes to stage 3 tax cuts for high income earners, saying it would “depend on the numbers” come election time.
Speaking to ABC’s RN Breakfast with Patricia Karvelas, Mr Dutton was pressed on whether he still supported tax relief for high income workers.
“I think the priority is to get inflation down, to get interest rates down and to support jobs in the economy, because I think we’re coming into a difficult period,” he said.
“I think it just depends on where the numbers are as we go into the election and how much money is available and how we prioritise our spending and how we do it in a way which is targeting inflation, so that interest rates can come down.”
“I was talking to one of the banks the other day, somebody on a mortgage of $500,000 is paying an extra $1,800 a month in repayments, and they’re only getting, with a quarter of a per cent reduction in interest rates, about $80 a month in terms of relief of payments.”
Mr Dutton had previously hinted he would undo Labor’s changes to the $359 billion stage 3 tax cuts.
The original tax plan would have meant a single, 30 per cent tax bracket created for those earning between $45,000 and $200,000.
But the Federal Government altered those terms to retain a 37 per cent tax rate for those earning between $135,000 and $190,000, and a 45 per cent tax rate for those earning above $190,000.
The redesigned package meant a person earning $200,000 would take home $4,529 less than under the initial plan.
