‘We were right. You were right. Bill was wrong’: Shorten backs down on tax policy

About 300,000 pensioners have been spared pain from Labor’s new tax policy after Bill Shorten backed down to widespread backlash.

But experts remain confused about the the policy’s structure.

“We were right. You were right. I was right. Bill Shorten was wrong. He stuffed up his tax policy.”
– Neil Mitchell

The opposition plans to scrap extra cash refunds paid to retirees, as part of their share portfolio.

Under the original policy, about one million people would be affected.

Labor has been forced to revise its scheme as the fallout from pensioner groups intensified.

Paul Rickard, Director of Switzer Financial Group, told Neil Mitchell the changes have “fixed most of the problems”.

“It helps the most disadvantaged, but there’s probably others who could argue they’ve still got some claim to it, and certainly … Bill Shorten is changing the rules,” he said.

And he admitted even he found it complicated.

“I’m not sure why they’ve made it so complicated,” he said.

“If they were really worried about the people on lower incomes, they could’ve just put a cap on it.”

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