Introduction
The competing tax policies of the Coalition and Labor Parties at the 2019 federal election present voters with the starkest choice on offer for decades. For the first time in a long time, the decision the Australian people make on 18 May will result in markedly different economic outcomes for the country in the decade ahead.
Yet tax remains an almost impossibly complicated and inaccessible topic for the average Australian voter. Understanding how the two very different approaches of the major parties will affect our society isn’t as easy as it should be if voters are to make a genuinely informed choice.
This report attempts to shed some light on the different results that will occur depending on which party forms government after 18 May.
To do so, we have created two families of relatively high-income earners, and modelled their income under the tax measures that will apply in 2024 should the Coalition retain government, compared to those that will apply should Labor win the election and remain in government in 2024.
We have also compared the changes in tax paid by an individual earning just above the minimum wage, and one earning $180,000 per annum (in the top 20% of earners), in 2024 under both scenarios.
The results are striking and point to a very different Australia ten years from now, depending on which party’s policies are implemented over the next five years.
