‘No consideration': Anthony Albanese rejects GST increase in ambitious outline of Labor's second term agenda
Outlining his economic vision for his second term of government at Australia's Economic Outlook in Sydney, which was co-hosted by The Australian and Sky News, the Prime Minister said consumption taxes like GST did not fit in with Labor's agenda.
The 10 per cent tax is applied to most goods and services and has been set at 10 per cent since it was introduced in 2000.
'It's not something that we have given any consideration to,' he told Sky's Andrew Clennell.
'I'm a supporter of progressive taxation. Consumption taxes, by definition, are regressive in their nature. So that's something that you know doesn't fit with the agenda.'
While he didn't commit to specific changes on income tax, Mr Albanese said it would also be his preference that 'income taxes (are) as low as possible, and wages (are) as high as possible'.
Mr Albanese also said tax reform would play an 'important part' in ensuring the private sector and small business was equipped to drive economic growth and jobs, with the Labor acknowledging that 'government should be a driver of growth – but not the driver of growth'.
Adapting and developing new technologies like AI, 'eliminating frustrating overlap' between local, state and federal regulations, strengthening domestic supply chains and ensuring female participation in the workforce were other key priorities.
'Our government wants you to be able to resume your rightful place as the primary source of growth in our economy,' he said.
The renewed commitment follows criticisms from the business community that Labor's first-term industrial relations policies like Same Job Same Pay had hampered businesses growth.
However Mr Albanese called on business leaders, civil society and union chiefs, to work together at Labor's upcoming productivity round table in August in order to 'build broad agreement for action'.
'Because very often the public debate about change in our economy is conducted only in terms of dire warnings about what the consequences for Australia will be if we get it wrong,' he said.
'In order to build the broadest possible support for substantive economic reform, we should focus on what we can achieve by getting it right.'
In response to the speech, Coalition spokesman for small business Tim Wilson was critical of the commitment and called on Labor to scrap Labor's flagged super tax.
When asked during the event, Mr Albanese continued to back the super tax, stating Labor had put the tax forward in its last term, and that the tax would impact just 'half a per cent of people'.
'The only way he is going to be able to deliver for small business is to actually address the root cause of the problems,' he said, naming issues like over-regulation, and reducing taxes,' he told Sky.
'A really simple good way to do it is to stop his plan for a family savings tax on unrealised capital gains, which explicitly hits unsold assets in superannuation, particularly for small businesses.'
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