Labor keeps announcing help for Australians, then acting surprised when Aussies explain what that ‘help’ is actually costing them.
asserted
help → announce → them
The Australian Tax Office had planned to stop accepting credit cards for tax payments from December 1.
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Office → plan → December
For a small business owner - the kind Labor ministers love to use as backdrops for press conferences - a credit card can bridge the gap between a customer’s late payment and the taxman’s deadline.
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card → love → payment
Remove that option and the tax bill still arrives on time, but the customer’s payment often does not.
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payment → remove → time
It’s not rocket science.
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It → ’ → ?
Understanding that this sudden issue is a cash flow nightmare for business owners hardly requires an economics degree - not that the Treasurer and Finance minister have one of those between them.
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Treasurer → understand → them
But I guess neither has also ever run a business either, so their shock, borne out of ignorance is hardly surprising.
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shock → guess → ignorance
Labor’s varied response has been a jumble of support, concern and buck-passing, depending on which minister or MP is being interviewed.
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minister → depend → support
One minister backs the decision, another wants it reconsidered.
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it → back → decision
It’s a choose your own adventure story leaving businesses wondering where the hell this goes next.
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this → ’ → businesses
The ATO uproar should come as little surprise given Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher don't have business experience or hold an economics degree between them
When the ATO cracks down on tax avoidance, Labor happily claims credit for it doing so.
uncertain
it → come → credit
It even boasts of it as the ‘Albanese Government’s corporate tax crackdown’.
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It → boast → crackdown
When the tax office withdraws a payment option businesses rely on, however, suddenly its independence is Jim Chalmers’ explanation for the decision - wringing his hands of any responsibility.
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independence → withdraw → responsibility
That's convenient, but it’s also ridiculous given that the decision follows a surcharge change Labor championed which put the ATO in the exact position it’s now in.
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it → ’ → position
If it didn’t pass on the surcharge costs now that Labor has banned them, the ATO would have been forced to absorb a $200 million cost.
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ATO → pass → cost
Labor wasn't prepared to increase the ATO’s budget to offset the hit, so it did what it felt it had to do, leaving businesses in a bind.
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it → increase → bind
Labor could have directed it not to do this, of course, but it didn’t.
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it → direct → course
After the backlash, Chalmers suddenly found additional funding to delay the ban.
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Chalmers → find → ban
Apparently, the ATO’s independence wasn’t such an obstacle once the political heat became too much to bear.
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heat → become → ?
It was a belated intervention that should have come before businesses were thrown into uncertainty.
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businesses → come → uncertainty
I don't have much sympathy for the ATO.
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I → have → ATO
Its interest charges on outstanding tax bills are punitive to say the least, and well above the inflation rate or any home loan rate banks offer.
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banks → say → rate
Frankly, they are taking the piss charging interest at the rate they do as a government agency.
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they → take → agency
But that doesn’t change the fact that the ATO’s reaction to Labor’s banning of surcharges should have been entirely predictable, meaning that a competent government would have been ahead of this issue before it became a crisis for businesses.
Labor celebrated removing card surcharges as cost of living relief, hoping for a political bump.
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Labor → change → bump
Albo filmed a video celebrating how the move was 'saving you money'.
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move → film → money
There is a perfectly reasonable case for ending annoying checkout fees, don’t get me wrong.
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me → be → fees
But abolishing a surcharge doesn’t abolish the cost of processing the payment.
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abolishing → abolish → payment
Lower interchange fees should help, but the Reserve Bank acknowledges that businesses can fold remaining costs into prices, leaving customers paying similar amounts anyway.
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businesses → help → amounts
Others, including the ATO and some private schools, for example, have indicated that they will stop accepting credit cards rather than absorb the costs.
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they → include → costs
Plenty of other organisations will soon do the same.
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Plenty → do → same
So the surcharge disappears, but some prices rise and some payment options disappear with it.
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options → disappear → it
Families lose flexibility.
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Families → lose → flexibility
Businesses face another cash-flow squeeze.
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Businesses → face → squeeze
This is the law of unintended consequences in action in real time, delivered during a cost of living crisis by a government congratulating itself for helping when it’s really not.
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it → deliver → itself
The Aporia
