{"id":68030,"date":"2025-08-14T16:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T16:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/68030\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T16:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T16:18:09","slug":"coalition-compares-labors-economic-summit-to-willy-wonkas-golden-tickets-as-it-criticises-privileged-talkfest-jim-chalmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/68030\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition compares Labor\u2019s economic summit to Willy Wonka\u2019s golden tickets as it criticises \u2018privileged talkfest\u2019 | Jim Chalmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Coalition<\/a> has likened next week\u2019s economic reform roundtable to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as they challenge Labor to reject proposals which would increase taxes or make it harder to run a business.<\/p>\n

The shadow treasurer, Ted O\u2019Brien, the opposition\u2019s sole representative at the event, will use a speech to a Liberal-aligned thinktank to dub the treasurer, Jim Chalmers<\/a>, \u201cAustralia\u2019s candy man\u201d \u2013 a reference to Willy Wonka, Roald Dahl\u2019s famous character who awards golden tickets for a visit his factory.<\/p>\n

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O\u2019Brien will tell the Menzies Research Institute on Friday that Labor needs to show economic leadership to spur growth and lift living standards.<\/p>\n

He will seize on leaked Treasury advice which showed the government has prepared pre-determined outcomes for the summit, including new AI rules and a pause on changes to the National Construction Code.<\/p>\n

Reforms designed to clear a backlog of 30,000 housing approvals held up by consideration under environmental laws are also outlined in the cabinet document, reported by the ABC.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like the roundtable has been engineered to rubber stamp a doubling down on Labor\u2019s failed tax and spend strategy,\u201d O\u2019Brien will say.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me be crystal clear: the Coalition will be no such rubber stamp. And we reject any suggestion Labor has a mandate to hike taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite taking part, O\u2019Brien calls the meetings a \u201cprivileged talkfest\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in the Coalition have already started our own process of formulating a new economic agenda to take to the next election, and we will take the time to get it right,\u201d O\u2019Brien will say.<\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese has sought to manage expectations, warning the roundtable meeting \u201cisn\u2019t a substitute for government decision-making\u201d and that the only tax policies Labor would implement in this term were modest changes put to voters before the 3 May election.<\/p>\n

The prime minister said the event was about considering ideas which could inform next year\u2019s federal budget or future legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think you\u2019re the smartest in the room, you\u2019re in the wrong room,\u201d Albanese said during a visit to Queensland on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re awaiting the forum, and ideas will then come through normal government processes. That\u2019s how good policy happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Greens have also made demands, urging Labor to make commitments on universal childcare.<\/p>\n

The early childhood education spokesperson, Steph Hodgins-May, wrote to Chalmers on Thursday calling for all families to be able to access affordable and high-quality early learning.<\/p>\n

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The Victorian senator said such a move would improve living standards, boost workforce participation and strengthen economic resilience.<\/p>\n

\u201cA shift to a universal, low-cost, high-quality early learning system would be a gamechanger for families, children and the economy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe childcare subsidy model and market-driven approach make early learning inaccessible and unaffordable for many families, and clearly fails to guarantee safety or quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia revealed this week Labor has commissioned consulting firm Deloitte to help design a universal childcare system, launching a two-year study of demand and costs.<\/a><\/p>\n

It could lead to the introduction of a $10 flat fee for childcare services.<\/p>\n

Work by the Productivity Commission<\/a> suggests such a move would increase the total hours of work by single parents and secondary earners with young children by nearly 3% \u2013 the equivalent of about 17,000 additional full-time workers.<\/p>\n

The childcare subsidy will cost the budget about $16.2bn this financial year, and is slated to rise to $18.4bn by 2028-29. With growth of about 5.5%, it is one of the big budget measures growing faster than nominal GDP.<\/p>\n

The teal independent Allegra Spender<\/a> said a reduction in income taxes on wages was badly needed, to help younger Australians get ahead. She proposed a dual income tax system, where income from labour would be taxed separately to income from investments.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia\u2019s focus on income tax from wages means that people are contributing the bulk of their lifetime tax at precisely the moment when they have the most expenses: saving for or paying down a record-high mortgage, putting children through childcare and school, while also trying to save for a retirement,\u201d the Wentworth MP said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Ken Henry said, if you wanted to design a tax system to punish young people, you\u2019d arrive at something pretty similar to what we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Coalition has likened next week\u2019s economic reform roundtable to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as they challenge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-68030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}