Tony Abbott urges crossbench senators to respect Coalition deficit mission
|
Version 0 of 1. Tony Abbott has urged crossbench senators threatening to oppose a dumping of Labor income tax cuts to respect the government’s mission to tackle the deficit. Incoming crossbench senators David Leyonhjelm, from the Liberal Democratic party, and Family First's Bob Day, told the Australian they opposed Coalition plans to stop a second increase to the tax-free threshold. "The Liberal Democrats will never vote for an increase in taxes and, therefore, we won't vote to reverse a tax cut," Leyonhjelm said. The prime minister said his government was elected to rein in the budget and repeal the carbon tax. He said he would like nothing more than to be able to give another "swift round of tax cuts" but the fiscal position made that difficult. "Obviously, we're going to talk respectfully to the crossbench senators," he told reporters in Ottawa, Canada. "But we also expect them to respect the fact the government has a job to do ... to bring the budget back under control as well as to repeal the carbon tax." Without the carbon tax there was "much less need" for associated compensation, he said. The tax-free threshold has already increased from $6,000 to $18,200 and Labor planned to further lift it to $19,400 as part of its carbon tax compensation. At least one crossbench senator has been told the Abbott government intends to repeal this second increase, the Australian reported. |