There's usually trouble when a Malcolm Turnbull-led Liberal Party has a policy indistinguishable from Labor's. There's nothing wrong with bipartisanship, but it should be bipartisanship on the right issue. Since the departure of John Howard, the Liberals have too often followed Labor's lead, rather than the other way around.
In 2009 it was climate change. Back then, under Turnbull, the Liberals convinced themselves they should follow Labor and the received opinion of Canberra's policymakers and the media. After Abbott replaced Turnbull, the Liberals effectively won two federal elections on the basis of their opposition to an emissions trading scheme and then the carbon tax. After a fair bit of fluffing around the Liberals finally came up with a position that was both good politics and good policy.
In 2016 the issue is tax. A few things are different, like the fact that Turnbull is now the prime minister. But there's just as much fluffing around on tax as there was on climate change. And just as in 2009 Labor and received opinion are in favour of doing something that is exactly the opposite of what the Liberals should be doing.
Instead of contemplating ways of increasing the tax burden, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison should be mounting the case for cutting government spending and allowing people to keep more of their own money. It was a terrible look when Scott Morrison as a Liberal treasurer complained that the ALP's plan to restrict negative gearing didn't generate enough money. Morrison said, "Like their famous mining tax, Labor's proposed change to negative gearing promises big, but raises very little revenue." Following such logic, if Labor's plan had raised lots of revenue, maybe Morrison would have supported it.
For the Liberals to have increased the GST rate by 50 per cent would have been as foolish as them supporting a carbon tax.
Today's Liberal Party has lost its moorings on many issues — including federalism, the right to work and freedom of speech, to name just a few. Once upon a time Liberals welcomed foreign investment. But these days, Liberal MPs compete against their Labor counterparts by attacking the supposedly nefarious taxation arrangements of dastardly multinational corporations. It's ironic that at the same time the Liberals were talking about forcing families to pay higher bills at the supermarket through a higher GST to reduce the tax rate for multinational corporations, Liberal MPs were abusing the multinational corporations that were already here.
TOO MANY NANNIES
And when it comes to the nanny state, Liberals can be just as big boosters of the concept as anyone on the Labor side.
Fortunately, some vestige of a commitment to lower taxes, and the increased personal freedom that comes with the government taking less money out of people's pay packets, remain in the Liberal Party. A desire to reduce taxes isn't yet entirely eradicated from the Liberal Party's DNA, which is why there was such strong resistance from the backbench and the party membership to increasing the GST.
For most Liberal MPs, if they're running their party leadership's line about the need to raise taxes by increasing the GST, or changing superannuation, or negative gearing, or capital gains tax, they're arguing for something they don't believe in.
That's the real reason why the Liberals are in a muddle on tax. They know that what Tony Abbott said at the time of his first budget was true: "You can't tax your way to prosperity."
Labor Party MPs do honestly believe in higher taxes and more government spending. That's why Labor leader Bill Shorten can speak enthusiastically and passionately about abolishing negative gearing on existing properties. And that's why Labor MPs can enthusiastically and passionately support him. Voters are not dumb. They can sense when a politician is talking about something they believe in and when they're not. Even if the voters don't agree with what what's being said, the politician at least gets points for sincerity. This newfound authenticity from Bill Shorten could be some of the reason for Labor's rise in the polls.
The question now for the Liberals is when they too will begin to be authentic.
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