A Free Kick for a Floundering Opposition

Poor ol’ Paul Keating : imagine coining a derogatory phrase, then turning into its living embodiment. The man who coined the phrase “Relevance Deprivation Syndrome” now suffers from a terminal case of it himself. He just can’t seem to sit back on his massive taxpayer-funded pension and shut his damn fool mouth. The silly old coot seems to labouring under the grandiose delusion that the entire nation hangs with bated breath on his every utterance regarding current events.

Still, it’s hardly surprising Keating is defending the Capital Gains Tax grab: after all, he introduced CGT in the first place. It’s somewhat more surprising that he is defending the negative gearing changes, since his own attempt to do so blew up so spectacularly in his face.

Keating tried the same negative-gearing trick as Albo and Zippy back in 1985. Rents promptly hit the roof. Sydney and Perth tenants were hammered hardest. The policy was such a disaster it was reversed just two years later in 1987. Yet here we are, four decades on, watching history repeat as farce while Labor insists this time it’ll be different.

It’s almost like they’re socialists or something.

For once, the coalition are finding something resembling a spine.

Angus Taylor has rubbished Paul Keating’s support for the Albanese government’s budget reforms as “more nonsense” from the former prime minister.

In an extraordinary swipe at the former Labor leader, the opposition leader said he would not be “lectured by someone” who deemed the coalition’s new immigration policy “racist” […]

“(That is) more nonsense from Paul Keating. We have had a lot of nonsense,” Mr Taylor said on Thursday morning.

“I mean, this is the Paul Keating who said putting Australian values at the centre of our immigration policy, Australian values, was racist.

“I mean, seriously? Every small business owner in this country is reconciling themselves to the fact that they have a new business partner in Anthony Albanese.”

The real problem for Albanese isn’t some retired ex-PM playing elder statesman. It’s that even his own side is bailing. NSW Premier Chris Minns , for all his faults, a politician with a sharp ear on the ground and an election looming early next year, has broken ranks. Minns called for “urgent action” on bracket creep and even backed, in principle, the Liberals’ push to index tax thresholds and slash the top marginal rate.

Mr Minns earlier said the Albanese government’s failure to act on bracket creep was undermining the pay rises the NSW government was funding for nurses, paramedics and teachers. “Whether it’s in this budget or it’s in the future, we do need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to hand more money back to working Australians,” he said.

“The top marginal rate of 47 per cent … you’re working Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday for yourself, and then (the rest of) Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for the government.”

Environment Minister Murray Watt tried the usual spin: “small groups” in the community are unhappy about losing some of their tax advantages. You know: small businesses, start-ups and anyone who actually creates jobs, “small groups” like that. Watt also dodged questions about the very public wedge between Minns and Treasurer Jim Chalmers , before letting himself be led into the trap of explaining harder, with a wall of pollie-speak, and hoping the punters are too stupid to notice.

It was John Hewson ’s infamous birthday cake all over again, except this time it’s wrapped in impenetrable jargon about trusts, CGT discounts and ‘intergenerational equity’. Except that Hewson was at least honest about his intentions – and paid the price at the ballot box. Albanese couldn’t lie straight in bed. He swore blind he wouldn’t touch negative gearing or CGT, then rammed through changes that punish exactly the aspirational voters Labor claims to champion.

The politics have collapsed in a week. The pitch to young homebuyers has flopped. Millennials aren’t buying the ‘75,000 extra homebuyers’ hoax. Gen X feel utterly forgotten. Small business is incandescent. The Senate crossbench is sharpening knives.

Parliament resumes next week. This budget is a gift to the dying coalition, if they’re smart enough to run with it. Angus Taylor has been handed the free kick of a toxic issue for the government, while offering the much more popular policy of indexing personal income tax thresholds. Even if the coalition makes up lost poll ground, Pauline Hanson ’s One Nation will hoover up much of the disillusioned Labor vote. The Greens and teals will pile on from the other side.

The clock is ticking down to the next sitting: Albanese has maybe 48 hours, 72 at the outside, to backtrack on something, anything, and at least look like he’s listening. Instead, he’s apparently thinking he’s channelling Gough Whitlam : “Crash through, or crash”. How’d that work out for Whitlam, again?

Maybe Albanese thinks giving ground will make him look weak: but that lettuce leaf wilted long ago. If he digs in, the Senate will force changes anyway and it will look like an even more comprehensive defeat. The perception of a dominant Labor government will evaporate.

Keating can keep muttering from the sidelines. Minns is reading the room. Chalmers can keep thundering about ‘misinformation’ and “media conspiracies”. Voters will just know that they’re being shafted by a Labor tax grab that’s slowly creeping beyond even the grave.

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