NSW Premier Chris Minns' criticism of the federal budget could become a major political headache for the Albanese government, with the WA Opposition Leader declaring it a “disaster for Labor”.
Minns accused the federal government of failing to properly address bracket creep, claiming Australians paying the top marginal tax rate are effectively working half the week for the government.
“The top marginal rate is 47 per cent. As I said in parliament last week, you work Monday, Tuesday, and half Wednesday for yourself and then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for the government — that’s a tough burden for a lot of families,” Minns said on Wednesday.
WA Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas told Sunrise on Thursday the criticism carried enormous political weight because it was coming from one of Labor’s most popular and politically influential premiers, who had built significant public credibility following his handling of the Bondi tragedy.
“You can’t get much worse than this. An unpopular budget, not testing well with the population of the country, and then Chris Minns, one of the new generation of Labor leaders ... so publicly and openly at war over the interpretation or basically the desired success or otherwise of this budget,” he said.
“This is bad news for the prime minister and bad news for (Treasurer) Jim Chalmers.
“He showed superior judgement to the prime minister. So now for that person to be coming out and bagging the budget, that is a big, big blow.”
SUNSHINE Coast Mayor Rosanna Natoli agreed, saying there is “no doubt” this is not great for anyone in the Labor government, but she said the political fallout was unlikely to matter to Australians struggling with rising costs.
“This kind of infighting in a political party doesn’t actually mean much to everyday Australians who are thinking about, ‘Do I work more hours, do I try to get a second job to help pay for the cost of living?’,” she said.
“Whether you call it bracket creep or whether you call it the cost of living crisis, things cost more money, everything is costing more, and wages are not going up.”
The government has attempted to defend the budget with Treasury modelling, but criticism remains over proposed tax changes and their impact on households and small businesses.
Zempilas said Minns publicly attacking the budget had compounded Labor’s problems.
“Minns is the gold-standard Labor premier, and to have that person openly criticising the prime minister and the federal treasurer’s budget — that is disaster for Labor,” he said.
“It’s already unpopular and then one of their golden boys comes out and bags it, that’s as bad as it can get.”
But, despite the growing backlash, Zempilas believes the government is unlikely to reverse course because the political damage of backtracking could be even worse.
He said he has “no doubt” Labor figures would be strategising behind closed doors and considering whether they could walk back parts of the policy, but said any retreat would likely come at a major cost to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“The fact that the prime minister went to the election saying there will be no changes to capital gains tax, there will be no changes to negative gearing, and then there are changes,” Zempilas said.
“And when WA is in a fight for its share of the GST, now nobody can trust the word of the prime minister.
“That’s a big problem for him.”
