Cut the ‘bloody stage 3 tax cuts’: Lambie

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie wants the stage three tax cuts to be axed, despite voting for them, saying that money should instead be spent on lifting people out of poverty.

The proposed stage three tax cuts will give $14bn in relief to the country’s highest earners from July next year.

The firebrand senator said circumstances had changed since she backed the cuts introduced by the Morrison government pre-Covid.

She said that time had come because far too many people were now struggling under cost of living pressures thanks to high inflation and that money from the tax cuts should to be spent on them.

“When people are living in poverty, there’s no good giving a little bit here and a little bit here. You’re giving out chicken feed and it will progress nowhere,” she told QandA.

“You go in hard and fast and stop a generation from being in a (poverty).”

She said the Albanese Labor government needed to respond to the circumstances now.

“Please don’t use Covid as an excuse when you’ve still got those bloody stage three tax cuts with rich people like you and I because we earn more than enough. We could pay more tax, not take tax (cuts),” she said.

“That‘s how it should work. It’s more about giving back. That’s the patriotism that should be back in this country and it’s gone missing.”

The tax cuts, due to come into effect in July 2024, are part of changes to the tax regime implemented by the Morrison government and largely affect medium to high-income earners.

Stage three involves abolishing the 37 per cent marginal tax bracket for those earning $120,000 to $180,000 and creating a flat rate of 30 per cent for those earning between $45,001 and $200,000.