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Costello slams Abbott parent tax Phillip Coorey
March 17, 2010
THE former treasurer Peter Costello has savaged Tony Abbott's paid parental leave policy as a ''silly'' idea that would reduce the global competitiveness of Australian business and which contravened the Liberal philosophy of low taxes.
Mr Costello, the nation's longest-serving treasurer, says the fact that the policy would be the most generous state scheme in the world after Sweden's ''should have set alarm bells ringing''.
''For Liberals, that alarm should have sounded like an air-raid siren once Bob Brown and the Greens lauded the scheme.''
Mr Costello levels his attack writing in today's Herald. His criticism threatens to be especially damaging, given that his almost 12 years as treasurer is cited by the Coalition when it lays claim to superior economic management.
Mr Abbott announced last week that the Coalition would increase company tax by 1.7 per cent on businesses that earned more than $5 million a year in taxable income.
The $2.7 billion raised annually would fund a scheme in which all primary carers received six months' leave at full pay, capped at an annual salary of $150,000.
It was designed to gazump the government's taxpayer-funded scheme which, at the cost of $260 million a year, would provide all carers with 18 weeks' leave at the minimum weekly wage of $544.
Mr Costello says it was the first Liberal Party speech he had heard in favour of higher tax. ''The idea of increasing tax would be as foreign to the Liberal Party as voluntary unionism at the local ALP branch,'' he says.
He points out the Howard government cut company tax from 36 per cent to 30 per cent, making Australia one of the most competitive tax regimes in the world.
''Others are now catching and overtaking us. We cannot afford to go backwards.''
The attack comes as Mr Abbott and the Coalition are enjoying competitively high opinion poll ratings while those of Kevin Rudd and his government are falling.
Yesterday, Mr Abbott told his party room to resist the temptation to ''gloat at the discomfiture of our enemies'' and congratulated them on their unity.
Inside the ALP, there was no general panic although elements of the NSW Right were expressing disquiet with the Prime Minister over his leadership style.
Several sources said Mr Rudd's rude treatment of the NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally, on Friday had brought things to a head but at a meeting of the Right on Monday, the matter was not raised and sources said there was unity behind Mr Rudd at a federal level.
The government decided attack was the best form of defence and yesterday targeted Mr Abbott's parental leave policy and his record as health minister.
It seized on the opposition finance spokesman, Barnaby Joyce, who said the company tax rise would be passed on to consumers and increase the cost of living.
''We discovered what was under the budgie smugglers - a big new tax,'' the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, said.
Mr Costello accuses Mr Abbott of feeling like ''he had to say something on International Women's Day'' to broaden his appeal to women ''so he adopts the Crocodile Dundee approach''.
He cites the famous scene in the film where Mick Dundee, when threatened by a knife-wielding mugger, pulls out a large hunting knife and says, ''That's not a knife, this is a knife''.
''The point of Abbott's proposal is to tell the public that Rudd does not have a maternity leave scheme.
''This is a maternity leave scheme.''
March 17, 2010
THE former treasurer Peter Costello has savaged Tony Abbott's paid parental leave policy as a ''silly'' idea that would reduce the global competitiveness of Australian business and which contravened the Liberal philosophy of low taxes.
Mr Costello, the nation's longest-serving treasurer, says the fact that the policy would be the most generous state scheme in the world after Sweden's ''should have set alarm bells ringing''.
''For Liberals, that alarm should have sounded like an air-raid siren once Bob Brown and the Greens lauded the scheme.''
Mr Costello levels his attack writing in today's Herald. His criticism threatens to be especially damaging, given that his almost 12 years as treasurer is cited by the Coalition when it lays claim to superior economic management.
Mr Abbott announced last week that the Coalition would increase company tax by 1.7 per cent on businesses that earned more than $5 million a year in taxable income.
The $2.7 billion raised annually would fund a scheme in which all primary carers received six months' leave at full pay, capped at an annual salary of $150,000.
It was designed to gazump the government's taxpayer-funded scheme which, at the cost of $260 million a year, would provide all carers with 18 weeks' leave at the minimum weekly wage of $544.
Mr Costello says it was the first Liberal Party speech he had heard in favour of higher tax. ''The idea of increasing tax would be as foreign to the Liberal Party as voluntary unionism at the local ALP branch,'' he says.
He points out the Howard government cut company tax from 36 per cent to 30 per cent, making Australia one of the most competitive tax regimes in the world.
''Others are now catching and overtaking us. We cannot afford to go backwards.''
The attack comes as Mr Abbott and the Coalition are enjoying competitively high opinion poll ratings while those of Kevin Rudd and his government are falling.
Yesterday, Mr Abbott told his party room to resist the temptation to ''gloat at the discomfiture of our enemies'' and congratulated them on their unity.
Inside the ALP, there was no general panic although elements of the NSW Right were expressing disquiet with the Prime Minister over his leadership style.
Several sources said Mr Rudd's rude treatment of the NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally, on Friday had brought things to a head but at a meeting of the Right on Monday, the matter was not raised and sources said there was unity behind Mr Rudd at a federal level.
The government decided attack was the best form of defence and yesterday targeted Mr Abbott's parental leave policy and his record as health minister.
It seized on the opposition finance spokesman, Barnaby Joyce, who said the company tax rise would be passed on to consumers and increase the cost of living.
''We discovered what was under the budgie smugglers - a big new tax,'' the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, said.
Mr Costello accuses Mr Abbott of feeling like ''he had to say something on International Women's Day'' to broaden his appeal to women ''so he adopts the Crocodile Dundee approach''.
He cites the famous scene in the film where Mick Dundee, when threatened by a knife-wielding mugger, pulls out a large hunting knife and says, ''That's not a knife, this is a knife''.
''The point of Abbott's proposal is to tell the public that Rudd does not have a maternity leave scheme.
''This is a maternity leave scheme.''