Addressing the Centre for Independent Studies, a conservative think tank, this afternoon, the Liberal Party leader unveiled plans to prioritize income tax cuts and tackle budget deficits ahead of the next federal election.
“Our focus will begin where the pressure is most intense—on low and middle-income earners who are grappling with rising prices and living expenses,” Ley declared.
“This isn’t just a fleeting policy choice,” she continued.
“I’m more committed, more resolved, and more passionate about this cause than anything I’ve pursued in my public life. I am making a solemn promise to the Australian people to lower taxes,” she emphasized.
This marks a shift from the Coalition’s stance in the last election, where it pledged to overturn Labor’s “top-up” tax cuts under former leader Peter Dutton.
However, Treasurer Jim Chalmers expressed skepticism regarding Ley’s new commitment.
“They’re promising more spending and smaller deficits, Australians deserve to know how they’re going to do it. This can only mean savage cuts to Medicare and other essential services to pay for their promises,” he claimed.
Ley didn’t outline a specific tax cut, instead saying the Coalition would work on its policy platform and unveil it before the next election.
“Whilst early work on our tax cuts plan has already begun, we will determine the scale and scope of our eventual package as the final budget position becomes clearer over the next two and a half years,” she said.
However, she added the Coalition would focus on reducing regulation and making government smaller in order to be able to afford any tax cuts while improving the budget position.
The government should “do fewer things and do them better”, she said.
Ley also promised to wind back regulation and flagged a potential fight with Labor over industrial relations laws introduced over the past three-and-a-half years.
However, she sought to allay any fears that could include stopping people working from home, after a plan to force public servants back to the office backfired badly on Dutton and the Coalition at the last election.
“We believe in enterprise-level bargaining â where businesses and their staff can strike agreements that reward higher performance and suit their circumstances â rather than industry-wide decrees,” she said.
“I want to give Australian workers this assurance: flexibility does not mean stripping away worker protections.”
The address was the latest in a series of speeches by Ley as she seeks to haul the Coalition back from its disastrous performance in the May election, but comes amid the backdrop of more internal party turmoil.
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is believed to be weighing up a switch to One Nation after announcing he will quit the Nationals â and a number of other Coalition MPs are reportedly being eyed off by the minor party.
That, in turn, came after prominent shadow ministers Andrew Hastie and Jacinta Price quit Ley’s front bench; Hastie stepping down due to disagreements over immigration policy, and Price dumped amid the fallout from her damaging comments about Indian migrants.
