Swan refuses to rule out personal income tax increases

18/08/10

This morning during his debate with Joe Hockey on the Sunrise program, Wayne Swan refused to rule out increasing personal income taxes if Labor is re-elected on Saturday.

Both Mr Swan and Mr Hockey were asked to answer “yes” or “no” to a direct question by David Koch:

KOCH: Wayne Swan, will you guarantee not to put up personal income taxes?

SWAN: We’re keeping our commitment and we’ve already delivered three rounds of tax cuts.

The only “commitment” Labor has given is not to increase tax as a proportion of GDP – no commitments have been made not to increase personal taxes.

It is clear – a vote for Labor is a vote for more debt, more spending, and higher taxes to pay for it all.

The fact is, Labor is addicted to higher personal taxes. The only personal tax cuts Labor have delivered are the ones they copied from Peter Costello in the 2007 campaign.

Only the Coalition has a plan to end the waste, pay back the debt and stop the new taxes.

We will take the high road back to surplus by ending waste and cutting the reckless spending. Labor takes the low road of jacking-up taxes.

For the record, Joe Hockey’s answer to David Koch’s question was an unequivocal “yes” – the Coalition will not increase personal income taxes if elected. We are the party of low taxes.