Labor shadow Treasurer Wayne Swan today claimed that the L-A-W tax cuts were not a broken promise.
On Brisbane ABC radio this morning Mr Swan was asked directly:-
BROUGH “Were they a broken promise or not?”
SWAN: “What happened was that those cuts were delivered as you know…”
Mr Swan in the interview continued denying the L-A-W promise was broken, claiming that they had merely been deferred and delivered in an alternative form.
Mr Swan’s claim is absolutely false.
It demonstrates he cannot be trusted on tax. He personally voted to break Labor’s last legislated tax cuts. He now wants people to trust him to implement the Coalition’s latest round of tax cuts if Labor is elected.
The challenge is now for Mr Rudd – does he defend his shadow treasurer and claim that the L-A-W tax cuts was not a broken promise?
BACKGROUND:
In the One Nation Statement of 26 February 1992 Labor promised two rounds of tax cuts one to apply from 1 July 1994 and the second from 1 January 1996. See Attachment A.
These two rounds of tax cuts were then legislated in the Tax Legislation Amendment Act No.197 1992, famously becoming L-A-W before the 1993 election.
The 1993 election occurred on 13 March.
In the 1993-94 Budget delivered on 17 August 1993 (which increased wholesale sales tax, petrol excise) the LAW was broken and the Labor Government announced the second instalment would go ahead “when fiscal conditions permit, probably in 1998” (Attachment B)
The Taxation (Deficit Reduction) Bill No. 3 1993 enacted the first instalment (from November 1993) but withdrew the second instalment (previously legislated for 1 January 1996) to be delayed to the beginning of a financial year to be fixed by regulation.
No financial year was ever fixed.
The Keating Labor Government was voted out on 2 March 1996.
Not one cent of the January 1996 tax cuts was delivered for one day.
The One Nation statement went down into political history along with the infamous L-A-W tax cuts.