Shorten’s Budget Reply Slams Tax Cuts For The Rich & Promises $71B In Savings

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten delivered his reply to the Turnbull Government’s budget last night in Parliament, managing to scrape together an alleged $71 billion in budget savings which apparently were missed by the laserlike gaze of Scott Morrison.
The overall vibe is that Labor will reject the tax cuts that the Coalition proposes to apply to high earners and the retrospective changes to superannuation, keep the 2% deficit reduction levy on people earning over $180,000 and drop a massive $6 billion 10-year spending cut in the form of a $8K cap on loans for students to study at private colleges.
Shorten was not keen on allegations that he was engaging in ‘class warfare’. “It is not ‘class war’ to disagree with cutting money from families on fifty and sixty thousand dollars in order to give millionaires a tax break,” he said in his speech.
It’s clear that Labor is staking its election prospects on being defenders of working- and middle-class Australians. Shorten argued against extending the small business tax cut to all business, saying “Coles is not a small business. The Commonwealth Bank is not a small business. Goldman Sachs is not a small business”.

For those who care about climate change, there was something in there for you. “It’s time to turn things around, which is why a Labor government will deliver 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030,” Shorten said, in a clear rebuke to the lack of climate change policy in the Government’s budget.
The economic aspects of the budget are important for Shorten and co – the Coalition strongly outpolls them on issues of economic management. An Ipsos poll last month suggests that only 25% of Australians consider them better economic managers.
So there you have it: both sides have their budget takes. Onwards to the election.

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