Australian Senate cuts $106 bln in tax
Thoroughly fair: Turnbull
CANBERRA, Australia, June 23, (AP): Australia’s prime minister achieved an important political victory on Thursday when the Senate passed personal income tax cuts worth 144 billion Australian dollars ($106 billion) over a decade.
The tax cuts for most of Australia’s workforce were a centerpiece of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s annual budget plans revealed in May. That budget is expected to be the last before Turnbull’s conservative coalition seeks another three-year term at elections due by early next year.
Turnbull described the tax changes as “thoroughly fair.”
“We want you to keep more of the money you’ve earned — it’s not the government’s, it’s yours,” Turnbull told a nationally televised news conference.
The center-left opposition Labor Party supported the proposed initial tax relief for low and middle-income earners from next month. But they opposed a third and a final stage of the plan that reduces taxes of those with incomes from AU$120,000 to AU$200,000 from mid-2024.
Turnbull on Wednesday refused to split the legislation so that the Senate could reduce taxes for those on lower incomes but not for higher-income earners. The Senate had to pass or
reject the changes in their entirety.
The Senate on Thursday voted 37-33 to endorse the entire package. The government holds only 31 of the 76 seats in
the Senate, and minor parties provided the majority the legislation needed, with Labor senators voting against it.
Senate Labor leader Penny Wong
accused colleagues who supported the package of voting for tax cut for themselves. A senator’s base pay is around AU$200,000.