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Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Labour Tax Package Unveiled Dance of the Seven Veils Style
Mah man, Latham, today unveiled his tax policy. I personally think he's shot his tax wad early but he had little choice. He really needed a good money shot after a bad first week where his every appearance was simply as fluffer to Mr Interest Rates. Now, i've conducted some expert analysis - mainly driven by my defining political philosophy "what's in it for the 5% of suburban Mo's whose votes will get rid of that Howard Fo" and the results are in. Some features.
- $8 bucks per week for low to middle income earners seems a little "cheeseburger, french fries, mama" but y'know, it's better, than the warm water out of a tap that the Liberals made you pay for at the bar while you were off your head during the last budget.
- lifting the top marginal tax rate to $85,000 a year from July 2006 in a plan which Latham says will "ease the squeeze" on Australian families. Apart from the fact some of my best friends belong to families ( i really got to stop using that line ) I think the conventional family is just, just, hang on, this is a column about politics not what i think about those goddam breeders who take all my tax dollars and get their stinking Family Tax Benefit B so dad can piss it up against a wall, no this is not about that - it's about the politics. And also, arguably more importantly, about the phrase, "ease the squeeze." Oooh. How catchy is that. Vroooom. I like it.
- Labor says it will fund its policy by making $3.5 billion in savings.
Part of the savings will come from increasing the cost of business visa applications, returning the superannuation surcharge to 15 per cent for high income earners and lifting cigarette taxes by about three per cent. This is canny politics. No self respecting Australian could argue that hammering cashed up business migrants to pay for tax relief is a bad thing. I personally think most business migrants are Ukrainian gangsters or pimps from mainland China but what would i know. Noice. I also have recently stopped smoking. Thank you Allen Carr.
