Voters back tax U-turn
Slim majority OK with PM’s broken stage 3 promise
More than half of Australians believe Anthony Albanese did the right thing by breaking his promise on the stage 3 tax cuts to give low and middle-income earners more take-home pay, new research has found.
Support for the changes is particularly strong among older Australians, with 54 per cent of people aged over 55 in favour, according to a DemosAU survey of 1154 people conducted in the first two weeks of February.
Overall, 51 per cent of Australians were in favour of Labor’s stage 3 changes, while 32 per cent were opposed and about 17 per cent said they were undecided.
The question about stage 3 posed to voters specifically included the line “critics say the changes break an election promise” in an effort to test if this argument had an affect on opinion. The results were slightly lower in support compared to other recent surveys that did not phrase the issue in that context.
Labor voters were the biggest backers, followed by the Greens and some other minor parties, while Liberal and National voters were split, 41 per cent for and 46 per cent against the tax overhaul.
A person’s personal income did not appear to have a major impact on their position on the tax cuts, with even those who are now due to receive a lower tax break compared with the original proposal legislated by the Coalition overall supportive of Labor’s policy.
About 54 per cent of people earning $200,000 or above were for the tax changes.
Support was lowest among people on $45,000 or less – 43 per cent backed Labor’s plan.
Queenslanders were slightly more inclined to oppose the changes, with 51 per cent for and 35 per cent against, while in NSW the split was 53 per cent in favour and 33 per cent not, and in Victoria support was 49 per cent compared to 29 per cent opposed.
DemosAU director George Hasanakos said on balance the poll found Australians prioritised recasting stage 3 to benefit more people over election promises being kept.
“However, opposition to the changes to stage 3 is higher in the DemosAU poll than any other public polling,” he said.
“This probably reflects the larger prominence of the term ‘broken promise’ in the DemosAU formulation of the question,” he said.
Mr Hasanakos said Coalition voters appeared overall “comfortable” with the progressive tax system as amended by Labor. “Older voters are a bedrock of Coalition support and generally disapprove of Labor government initiatives,” he said. “It is over-55s who are the critical factor in majority support for the changes.
“We put this down to older voters being more accustomed and approving of progressive taxation system, and perhaps part-time income of partially retired workers benefiting from the changes.”