No budget plan to lift wages: Labor

Labor will match tax cuts for low and middle income workers contained in Tuesday's federal budget.

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen in parliament.

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has slammed the Morrison budget handed down on Tuesday. (AAP)

Labor will match the coalition's tax cuts for low and middle income earners, but argues the federal budget has no plan to lift wages.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen has promised to match the tax cuts that begin on July 1 for low and middle income workers, if Labor wins the next election.

"This is essentially a copy of what we proposed last year, and they are simply catching up to us," he said in a statement on Tuesday night.

"But the Liberals are so out of touch that they've given a much smaller tax cut to two million Australians earning less than $40,000. Labor will fix this and give these working people the tax relief they deserve."

Mr Bowen also said the budget had nothing to tackle power prices or climate change.

"This is a budget from a government that has given up governing," he said.

"There is no plan for wages, no plan to tackle power prices, no plan to address climate change, and no plan for the future."

Labor also said the government's promise to pay off net debt by 2030 was "laughable" because debt had doubled on the coalition's watch.


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Published 2 April 2019 8:20pm
Source: AAP


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