But data provided to AFR Weekend by the ATO shows how the proportion paid by high income earners has crept up over the last decade. In 2004-05, the top 10 per cent of taxpayers paid 43 per cent of net tax, while the top 1 per cent paid 15.8 per cent.

With the exception of the removal of the Abbott government's temporary two-year deficit levy, high-income earners have not enjoyed a decent reduction in taxes since 2010-11, when the last round of tax cuts copied by Kevin Rudd at the 2007 election were bedded down.

RMIT University Professor Sinclair Davidson said more people were being defined as high-income earners and trapped into paying a higher share of tax because governments had failed to index tax brackets, and the government should look at either increasing the brackets or cut tax rates to benefit all workers.

Professor Davidson said at a time of soft economic growth and the Reserve Bank of Australia bemoaning a lack of animal spirits, "part of the reason is because we tax successful people to the death and regulate everything else".

Economists are warning the lack of across-the-board tax cuts serves as a disincentive for high-income earners. Gabriele Charotte GLC

Call for action on bracket creep

"It is not surprise we have dislocation costs in the economy," he said.

"It is a terrible thing to say because the Labor Party has done a good job of demonising the word trickle down but if we want to create economic activity, we want to incentivise the people at the upper end of the income spectrum."


Deputy director of the Melbourne Institute Professor Roger Wilkins agreed a lack of action on bracket creep was a concern.

"Essentially what we've got is a changing tax policy each year masquerading as no change because by not indexing the tax thresholds, we are making a decision to reduce income in real terms every year," he said,

"The government indexes welfare payments in recognition they need to keep their purchasing power."

Mr Morrison announced this week the government would dump plans to lift the Medicare Levy to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme, allowing the Coalition to position itself as the low-tax party in contrast to Labor's policy to reintroduce the deficit levy and make it permanent, which would raise the top marginal rate to 49 per cent for people earning more than $180,001 a year.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said no one was going miss out from Bill Shorten's "high tax grab".

"Bill Shorten wants to tax individuals more, he wants to tax companies more, he wants to tax trusts more, he wants to tax self-funded retirees more, he wants to tax property more," he said.

David Rowe

Mr Shorten said bracket creep was an issue but the focus should be on closing loopholes that had created a "two-class tax system", disadvantaging ordinary workers.

"What I mean by two-class tax system is that if you earn a great deal of money, if you are very rich, if you're a multinational with access to the world's best accountants, the world's best tax havens, then you pay minimal tax in Australia," he said.