Australia PM Albanese says election ‘imminent’ as government rushes to pass tax cuts bill

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday he planned to call an election “imminently” as his centre-left government rushed through the parliament a bill on fresh tax cuts in a bid to lift support and win back aggrieved voters.

Three-year term limits mean Australia needs to go to the polls at least by May 17 to elect a new parliament. Opinion surveys show a close-run election with the opposition Liberal-National coalition ahead of Labor by a narrow margin.

“It will be in May, I can guarantee that. And it will be called pretty imminently,” Albanese told radio station Triple M.

“I’m not calling it today but I will call it soon. I think that Australians want to get on with it.”

The Albanese-led Labor government has been announcing a slew of measures aimed at pleasing families and businesses grappling with high costs as it seeks to win a second term.

In the federal budget on Tuesday, the government surprisingly launched two new rounds of tax cuts, worth A$17.1 billion ($10.7 billion). That meant a worker on average earnings could get a new tax cut of A$268 in the fiscal year ending June 2027 and A$536 in the next year, though it is modest than the A$1,654 relief introduced this fiscal year.

The tax cuts bill was introduced in the lower house on Wednesday morning, and was cleared in a late night sitting in the Senate – where Labor does not have a majority – with the help of the Greens party and independents.

The opposition Liberal-National coalition said it would repeal the bill if elected to power, replacing it with their own plan to halve the fuel excise for a year.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton called it a “real, immediate relief” saving families around A$750 a year. But Treasurer Jim Chalmers argued the opposition’s plans would only provide a limited relief and that Australians would be worse off.

“This decision will haunt them every single day of the election campaign,” Chalmers told reporters.

($1 = 1.5924 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)