Shadow treasurer says language he and the opposition used in last term ‘didn’t strike the right chord’ with voters

Labor’s senior leadership is doubling down on the claim $200,000 a year no longer represents the “top end of town”.

The shadow treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said Labor’s priority remained on helping to pass increased tax offsets for low and middle-class workers but echoed his leader’s comments that a $200,000 wage was “aspirational” and not necessarily wealthy.

Anthony Albanese first made the comment to Sky News on Friday, when discussing Labor’s position on the stage three of the government’s tax plan, which would put someone earning $45,000 on the same tax rate as someone earning $200,000.

In an interview with the ABC on Sunday, Chalmers agreed that a worker on $200,000 a year was not the “top end of town”.

“First of all, we accept that some of the language that we used in the last term, and I used in the last term, didn’t strike the right chord in the Australian community,” he said. “We do acknowledge that. The second point that Anthony is making there is that if you’re on a good wicket in this country, we say ‘good on you’. That is a good thing.

“We want more people doing well. We want more people earning more and looking after their families. We want more people finding themselves on a good wicket in the workplace.

“That is, in essence, what Labor is all about. The government talks about aspiration as a sort of marketing term that they learned from a focus group.

“For Labor, aspiration is about opportunity. And providing more opportunity for more people is our reason for being in the Labor party. And that means better jobs, better wages, better training – all of those things which actually give life to the aspirational instinct that people have in this country.”

After an election campaign based on inequality, Labor has pivoted its message, in an attempt to nullify the government’s “class warfare” attack lines, while finalising its position on the government’s legislation, which the Coalition intends on putting through as an “all or nothing deal”.

“I don’t regard someone who’s earning $200,000 a year as being from the top end of town,” Albanese said on Friday. “I regard many people, of course in trades, many people who are earning a good living, who work. It’s a good thing that people all aspire to get a higher standard of living for themselves and their family. What it’s a question of though is, in terms of the economic policy that’s required, my concern is the government is looking at tax, but what’s their policy on wages?”

In 2017, the ABS reported, Australia’s median weekly pay was just over $1,000 a week.

The government needs Labor to agree to pass through its entire tax cut in order to avoid striking deals with the Senate crossbench, with both One Nation and Centre Alliance hesitating over the third stage of the $158bn package, of which $95bn hits the budget in 2024.

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Labor’s shadow cabinet will meet on Monday to discuss its position, with the conversation split between allowing the package to pass through to ensure the tax cuts for lower and middle income earners, and continuing to resist the third stage.

“Our highest priority is to get money into the hands of workers, and flowing through an economy which desperately needs it,” Chalmers said.

He said the government’s highest priority seemed to be the third stage of the plan that does not come in for another five years.

“We want to know what that would mean for the budget and what that would mean for the economy, and the information that they don’t want to provide us,” Chalmers said. “It’s a huge outlay of money ... so, I think that the Australian people expect us to get all of the information, to have the proper consultations and considerations before we come to a final view.”

The assistant treasurer, Michael Sukkar, repeated the government’s claim it has a mandate to pass the entire tax plan, and maintained it would not be splitting the bill to ease its passage.

“A plan like this all hangs together,” Sukkar told Sky News. “The Labor party wants to cherrypick one or the other parts of the plan which they did before the election and they have been rebuffed by the Australian people.”

The Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe, who could announce another interest rate cut when his central bank board meets on 2 July, has urged parliament to use fiscal policy to help lift a slowing economy. That includes tax cuts as well as increased infrastructure spending.

Business leaders, such as retail billionaire Solomon Lew, also want the tax plan passed by parliament, saying relief is needed now to boost confidence rather than enduring the frustration of political point scoring.