Australia’s Prime Minister has caused a stir by suggesting that FIFO miners earning $180,000 a year aren’t rich.
Scott Morrison made the remarks while defending the proposed tax cuts for high-income earners by the federal government while visiting Queensland on Wednesday.
‘It’s hard work, you’re away from your families. It’s fly in and it’s fly out. And you do earn a bit more when you’re doing that,’ Morrison said of mining work.
‘But I tell you what, you put a bit of it away, too. And I don’t think they should be penalised and treated like they’re some merchant banker in Sydney.’
‘They’re not, they’re hardworking people working out on mines and difficult parts of the country. I think they deserve a tax cut.’
After Labor leader Anthony Albanese hinted that he might scrap the policy if he wins the next election, Morrison replied to questions about his proposed tax cuts for the wealthy.
The Coalition’s three-stage tax cuts are due in July 2024, giving those on an income of $200,000 an extra $11,640 back every year.
Comments by Morrison have divided public opinion.
“I guess it depends where you live in Australia as to whether or not you’re wealthy on $180,000,” Sunrise Host Samantha Armytage said.
“In Sydney, probably not.”
“For the many women over 60 surviving on $40 a day on the old Newstart rate then $180,000 is beyond their greatest dreams,” she said.
“The thing about these tax cuts is they disproportionately favour higher earners and they therefore favour men and we know this recession has hit women much harder than men.”
“They have lost more jobs, they have lost more work.”
“We need to be doing more to help women and we’re doing absolutely nothing,” she claimed.