The stage-three tax cuts are finally being revised. The rich complaining Labor broke its promise just sound vulgar

Treasurer Jim Chalmers with prime minister Anthony Albanese. ‘Labor’s messaging that the [stage-three tax] cuts have had to be reduced because of the broader economic danger they pose to already-tense households has the powerful political benefit of being true,’ writes Van Badham. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

It’s Christmas Day for a columnist when a governing party reverses a decision for which you have previously given them a righteous bollocking. So HO HO HO to me, as this week brings the joyful tidings that the federal Labor caucus have put their Santa hats on and chosen to unstupid the planned “stage-three” tax cuts.

The scheduled cuts are a legacy of the Morrison Coalition government. They passed with qualified support from Labor and some of the crossbench, including Jacqui Lambie, back in 2019, back when Scott Morrison had improbably won an election and Labor, the Fates and the black stuff of the universal firmament did not, could not, work out why.