Bombshell tax hike Jim Chalmers didn’t want you to know about as secret advice to Albanese Government is accidentally released
The Treasury has accidentally released advice it gave to the Albanese government shortly after it was re-elected, where it pushes for higher taxes to fix the federal Budget.
In an extraordinary blunder, bureaucrats mistakenly released parts of a secret briefing document given to the incoming government in response to an ABC Freedom of Information request.
In the briefing notes, officials told Treasurer Jim Chalmers that ‘tax should be raised as part of broader tax reform’ in order for the federal budget to remain ‘sustainable’.
The officials suggested the government ‘build on’ its superannuation tax and raise ‘indirect taxes’, such as those on alcohol and tobacco.
The document also shows officials bluntly told Labor that the party’s pledge to build 1.2million homes over five years in response to the housing crisis ‘will not be met’.
Government departments put always together briefs for major parties on how to enact their priorities ahead of federal elections.
Journalists often request a copy of the briefing through an FOI request but will typically receive a heavily redacted form of it. While the document obtained by the ABC featured the typical redactions, the Treasury failed to black-out sensitive headings and subheadings, disclosing the secret information.
Treasury workers pleaded for journalists to destroy the document, but the ABC divulged its contents in a report on Monday.
Secret advice offered by the independent Treasury to Labor Treasurer Jim Chalmers (pictured) has been leaked
Other notes included a call for Treasurer Jim Chalmers to find ‘additional revenue and spending reductions’ and consider raising ‘indirect taxes’ and superannuation tax
The advice stated: ‘Improvements to the budget will need to come from economic growth, additional revenue and spending reductions.’
Chalmers appears to have taken the Treasury’s advice to heart with a roundtable scheduled in August set to discuss tax changes that would improve the government’s budget.
Labor is also in negotiations with the Greens about its proposal to double the earnings tax on super balances above $3million, jumping from 15 per cent to 30 per cent.
In another heading, the Treasury advised Labor to lower taxes on individuals ‘to increase workforce participation and give workers a fair go’.
It suggested the same for company incomes in order to ‘modernise’ the existing taxes to boost investment.
More to come…
