<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>336849</docID> <postdate>2025-01-23 10:59:43</postdate> <headline>Tax cuts not enough to sway voter economic worries</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-279416" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20220531001665218993-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" /></p> <caption>Half of voters expect inflation to worsen in the future, according to the results of a fresh survey. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Andrew Brown</strong> in Canberra</span></p> <p><strong>While the treasurer hopes voters remember the boost to their hip pockets from tax cuts, polls show voters remain unconvinced about the economy.</strong></p> <p>As the anniversary approaches of the federal government's revamped stage three tax cuts, a Resolve poll shows half of voters expect inflation to worsen in the future.</p> <p>The same survey also shows the coalition leading Labor on a two-party preferred basis, months out from a federal election due to be held by May 17.</p> <p>Treasurer Jim Chalmers brushed off the survey, arguing while the tax cuts brought in during 2024 were politically contentious at the time, they had made a difference to the wallets of taxpayers.</p> <p>"Some of these numbers we're seeing are a reflection of the very real and genuine cost-of-living pressures that people are under," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.</p> <p>"We know even as we make quite remarkable progress in the economy overall - inflation down, wages up, unemployment low - that doesn't always translate into how people are feeling and faring.</p> <p>"You see that reflected from time to time in the opinion polls."</p> <p>Labor in 2024 made changes to the former coalition's stage three tax cuts in order to distribute them more evenly across low and middle-income earners.</p> <p>The stage three tax cuts saw Australians earning less than $150,000 a year receive a greater return than what they would have received, with the average household saving $2000 a year.</p> <p>High-income earners still received a tax cut under the proposal, but less than what was originally intended in the coalition's original model.</p> <p>Dr Chalmers said that financial support seen in the tax changes would continue.</p> <p>"Now, in this financial year, every Australian taxpayer has been getting a tax cut to help with the cost of living, and as we get wages up in the coming financial year, those tax cuts will get bigger," he said.</p> <p>"We have got inflation down, we have got wages up, we've kept unemployment low and the cost-of-living relief is flowing."</p> <p>It comes as other opinion polls showed the government still has a hill to climb if it wants a second term in office.</p> <p>The January poll for YouGov showed the coalition leading 51 to 49 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, despite voters backing Anthony Albanese as preferred prime minister over Peter Dutton.</p> </body>