Will the stage 3 tax cuts happen? Should they? As the cost-of-living crisis bites, it's the government's biggest question. Scott Morrison's Coalition had just won an election against a Labor Party proposing radical tax change. Economic growth was plodding along below its long-term average of around 2.75 per cent. Wages growth was stagnant. There was rising underemployment.
In that 'never satisfied' way of politics and economics that sounds a little weird to 2023 ears, the inflation rate at the time of just 1.3 per cent was seen as a bad thing: a sign of the sluggishness of the economy, not just here but around the world. The new opposition leader, Anthony Albanese rose to speak in the House of Representatives on July 2, 2019, to debate the legislation for the Morrison government's Labor wanted to pass the first two rounds of tax cuts — but bring the second one forward three years — which would deliver relief to lower income people, but not pass the stage 3 proposal. Stage 3 was the most expensive and radical change