In the old days, when people split up, they called it a divorce.
Now it’s ‘conscious uncoupling’.
In the old days, when people lost their jobs, they got the sack. Now they leave work to ‘explore new opportunities’.
In the old days, governments used to raise taxes. Now they introduce ‘levies’.
All of which is fine – who doesn’t love the elasticity of the English language – except that conservative governments – of the type Australia just elected – aren’t supposed to do either.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott went to the polls with a promise to cut spending.
He would identify waste; cut into welfare, and chop some of the more absurd programs that only Australian governments would ever fund.
That is what conservative governments do.
Now we hear that Prime Minister Abbott is in fact planning a new tax.
Of course, he isn’t calling it a tax. He’s calling it a ‘deficit reduction levy’.
How twee.
It’s a tax and, if the figures being thrown around today are right, it’s going to put Australia in the top 15, in terms of high-taxing nations.
Top earners in Australia will soon pay more tax than people pay in Norway.
They’ll pay twice as much as top earners in Hong Kong.
It’s a broken promise, and we’re surely used to that from politicians, but as far as Abbott’s base is concerned, this is very much worse.
It’s an abrogation of a principle. Conservative governments do not raise income taxes. That’s always been Labor’s job.
Related: Tony’s tax cuts his credibility
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