Labor leader Bill Shorten will accuse the Turnbull government of waging class warfare in the 2017 budget, arguing in his budget reply speech that it favours millionaires over middle income earners.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Labor will make keeping the $1.2 billion budget repair "deficit levy" on high income earners one of the first major, post-budget political fights.
Mr Shorten targeted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull personally on Wednesday during question time, asking how it was "a millionaire will receive a $16,400
tax cut" on July 1 while all Australians will pay more tax because of the budget's plan to raise the Medicare levy to 2.5 per cent pay for the NDIS.
That prompted a furious response from Mr Turnbull, who accused Mr Shorten of ripping off Cleanevent workers while a union leader, and arguing the ALP "has no
concept of fairness".
The Opposition Leader's budget reply speech will go further, flagging plans to force the government to keep the deficit levy - or re-introduce it under a future Labor government.
An ALP strategist said "all options are on the table" to keep the deficit levy, which raised the tax rate from 47 to 49 per cent for people earning more than $180,000 per year.
It is due to expire on July 1, three years after its introduction by Joe Hockey.
Mr Shorten's fourth budget reply speech will also reject characterisations of the budget - which increased spending on infrastructure, schools, health and hits banks with a new tax - as a "Labor lite" document.
The Turnbull government has also dumped a series of politically unpopular so-called "zombie" savings measures that date back to the 2014 budget, and tacked back to the political centre ground.
According to draft speech notes seen by Fairfax Media, Mr Shorten will argue "this Prime Minister has chosen multinationals and millionaires over middle and working-class families. And he's chosen his own political survival over everything else".
"Only this Prime Minister could vote to give himself and his frontbench a personal tax cut, on the same day that 700,000 Australian workers will have their penalty rates cut. Only this Prime Minister could imagine that was 'fair'."
He will point out the 2017-18 budget deficit, at $29.4 billion, is 10 times the $2.8 billion forecast in the first Abbott-Hockey budget in 2014-15.
"At a time when the government is asking every other working Australian to pay a higher rate of tax - Labor will not support spending at least $1.2 billion each year on the wealthiest 2 per cent.
"It is not fair that - under this government - someone on a million dollars will be over $16,000 better off, ever year - while Australians on $30,000 and $40,000 will have to pay more."
The move to keep the deficit levy is in line with the party's 2016 election policy costings.
???
