Bracket creep justifies $300b tax cut: opposition
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has reaffirmed the coalition's commitment to the stage-three tax cuts as new analysis shows they will cost the federal budget $313 billion over the next decade.
The hit to the budget will be 23 per cent larger than the previous estimate of $243 billion, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office.
The tax cuts are expected to overwhelmingly benefit higher income earners when they come into effect in July 2024.
Mr Taylor said the budget showed income tax growing as a percentage of GDP over the next four years.
"Bracket creep, the tax you don't notice until you look at the impact on your bank account, is eating away at Australians' earning power," he told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
"It is why we are committed to delivering the stage-three tax cuts."
The tax cuts have already been legislated and kick in at $45,000.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters the government's position had not changed and the tax cuts were due to go ahead.
"We attempted to amend those tax cuts when they were introduced and were not successful," he said.
"Therefore, they've been legislated."
The budget office analysis, commissioned by the Greens, found $157 billion will flow to workers earning more than $180,000 a year, which represents less than four per cent of the population.
Men will also be the big winners from the tax cuts, claiming 65 per cent of the total benefit over the next 10 years.
Greens leader Adam Bandt said the tax cuts would drive Australia towards "US-style inequality".
"Labor's stage-three tax cuts for the wealthy are a massive black hole, sucking in money that should be spent on services for everyone," he said.
"How can Labor spend over $30 billion a year on tax cuts for the wealthy, but not $5 billion a year for public housing that the Greens want?"
Greens treasury spokesman Nick McKim said the cuts would dismantle the nation's progressive tax system.
"It is unconscionable that a PM who got elected on a story of growing up in public housing would so cynically pull the ladder up behind him," he said.
"The idea of giving $313 billion in tax cuts to the wealthy instead of freezing rents, lifting Centrelink above the poverty line and building public and affordable housing is beyond disgraceful."