Backdown. Backflip. Backtrack.
However you cast it, Jim Chalmers was almost certainly backed into a corner — either finally convinced or strong-armed into accepting that Labor’s wildly unpopular tax reform plan was fatally flawed.
That the mooted plan to tax unrealised gains on superannuation balances above $3 million has been scuppered is a victory for working people — and common sense.
It was a proposal that caused untold anxiety in the electorate, as cost of living soars and the need to provide for one’s retirement and family feels more urgent than ever.
It is difficult to overstate just what a stunning policy turnaround this is from a Treasurer whose earnestness and appetite for a system that might better bolster the government’s coffers arguably had him blinkered.
The upside is Labor has delivered a better policy
The new policy, as unrecognisable as it is, is undeniably something of a humiliation for the always-composed Chalmers.
His chutzpah is to be admired, and it would be cruel to find any delight in his humbling.
Was he rolled by the Prime Minister? He won’t say.
“The Prime Minister and I have had discussions over recent months about finding another way to satisfy the same objectives,” he told a hungry, if cynical, media pack. “And that’s what’s happening here.”
“I do accept that this is a change to the proposal that we made more than two years ago, and I think what it demonstrates about me as Treasurer, but also, more importantly, about the Government as a whole is that we work through these issues in a considered and methodical way.”
Read between the lines.
The PM, presently out of town, knows more than most about the importance of carefully picking one’s battles. Perhaps he’s privately patting himself on the back for what reads like a significant win — even if it has wounded his Treasurer.
But credit where credit is due: Chalmers has handled what could’ve been a crippling ignominy with typical composure. His spin – that this was a mutual decision rather than a concession — helps save some face.
If he’s quietly seething, he may seek counsel from his hero Paul Keating, who as treasurer in 1985 suffered an historical humbling when his famous Option C — an audacious 12.5 per cent consumption tax that was heavily backed in by cabinet — was shot down by then prime minister Bob Hawke.
Spooked by stakeholders and a wary public, Hawke quietly pulled a lever designed to shore up support from both. It is said to have been a turning point in the relationship between the two comrades.
This spectacular change of course is as extreme a moment in policy making and, potentially, in the future of the Labor Party.
For now, Chalmers insists he and the Prime Minister are on the same page.
Whatever, one upside is Labor has delivered a better policy.
It just took them a while to get there.
Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.
https://thewest.com.au/opinion/editorials/editorial-policy-kryptonite-for-labors-super-man–c-20337123
