Following the Coalition election victory on the weekend, Labor MP Anthony Albanese, speaking on Adelaide’s 5AA radio this week, said the Labor Party needs to accept where it got it wrong with its campaign and acknowledge that voters sent the party a message on Saturday.
“It’s no good pretending that we don’t need to change some policies, but also some of the tactics as well,” Mr Albanese said.
“Quite clearly, one of the issues I think that was very difficult for us was that the measures that we were proposing about the dividend issue impacted on people’s hip pockets, and some of those, of course, weren’t very wealthy people. They were people for whom a small cheque was what they paid their rates with or their car rego, or other essentials in life when it came in, so that clearly had an impact for us.”
Mr Albanese said that refundable franking credits are still an issue that will need to be looked at by the government down the track; however, with the amount of money currently going towards these refunds, it’s becoming “unaffordable” for the government.
“But we need to look at issues like that; we need to go into the field and listen to what people have to say in the regions, in the outer suburbs, about why it is that we weren’t successful on Saturday, in spite of there being a perception for a long period of time that Labor was in the box seat to form government,” he said.
Data analysis undertaken by SuperConcepts ahead of the election found that a retiree with a balance of $900,000, would have their income in the first year reduced to $30,600 if refundable franking credits were removed, versus $36,771 with the refund.
SMSF members with substantial balances, it found, were less likely to be impacted by the removal of refundable franking credits, however, because of the $1.6 million transfer balance cap introduced in 2017.
Based on its software data, SMSF software firm BGL found that for the funds with a balance below $1.6 million, the average franking credit refund was around $5,460 in 2018.
The ALP did not acknowledge the problems with the fairness of their policy when their overall campaign was focussed on fairness! No wonder that they failed. Shame Chris Bowen.
KPMG released a report (or it was reported) after the election. It indicates that Franking Credits are an issue for the overall tax collection system and will need to be addressed. Must be a nightmare budgeting for such an unknown quantity and a growing one at that. $7Bn is a lot of tax revenue.
Perhaps we can use this forum to throw ideas into the pot in the vain hope that they can be worked into a decent policy that is equitable. Set aside self-interest, which is what we ask our politicians to do, and formulate something decent. There are many experts providing guidance and feedback on these forums, so why not help the government of the day to provide better tax policies. We have seen some absolute shockers in the past few years! It is clear that the government would benefit from your collective expertise!
So now we need to get in touch with our Labor candidates (some were elected, some weren’t) and give them additional feedback so they can take it back to HQ and get the policy fixed / removed.
Yes they stuffed up and they lost the election, but we need to continue the campaign so they understand the issues and don’t bring back a similarly half-baked policy next time. Don’t just think we have a 3 year reprieve – take action now while possibly Labor is listening, to get the message through.
“Mr Albanese said that refundable franking credits are still an issue that will need to be looked at by the government down the track.”
GREAT!! Stick to your policy and enjoy being in opposition for a good while to come.
Bill Short On Ideas and his equally economically challenged mates only had one policy . TAX AUSTRALIA TO DEATH. They just don’t get the fact that if you tax to death all the people that have worked hard to get ahead there will be no one left but the people that need assistance. No policy for economic growth.
No I think the ALP needs to take the exact same policies to the next election if they are so convicted about their legitimacy.
All advisers breathed a sigh of relief late Saturday night when the policies of Labor, seeking to push Industry Super to the forefront of savings vehicles imploded. They will be back but in the meantime don’t sit on your hands, we have been given a window of opportunity for SMSFs, run hard with it.
They can’t say they were not warned. The franking credit policy was dishonest, greedy and lacked tax rationality – and they still charged ahead. They could have had more sensible policies, but no, they knew better.
wow, you do not say….but pre election only the rich were receiving refunds?? now the tune has changed to “wernt very wealthy”.
One of the great nights of TV Saturday night watching labours smuck arrogant smirks disappear off their face and start sooking about how Libs only ran a fear campaign, Kenette summed it up best..”didnt you do the same thing about medicare last election” here is to some stability hopefully for a long time.