Albanese calls Taylor ‘Temu Abbott’ as bitter fight rages over budget tax changes

Anthony Albanese has ridiculed Angus Taylor as a “Temu [Tony] Abbott” amid an increasingly bitter fight over tax changes in the budget, as the Greens raise concerns about key provisions of the government’s proposal.

Labor will speed the first tranche of its budget legislation through the lower house on Thursday, and hopes to pass it through the Senate within weeks.

Greens support is required to pass the proposed changes to negative gearing, family trusts and capital gains tax through the Senate, but treasury spokesperson Nick McKim said his party were concerned about the government having sweeping discretionary powers to change tax rules.

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Albanese defended the changes in a speech to parliament on Wednesday, saying most workers had “never even heard of a discretionary trust”.

The Coalition opposes the changes and plans to move amendments to split the legislation in order to support the $250 Working Australians Tax Offset (Wato) while voting down the broader reform package – a move that is set to fail due to Labor’s large parliamentary majority.

Taylor continued his criticism of the reforms in question time on Wednesday, pointing to the release of national accounts which showed a slowdown in GDP growth and claiming that Labor’s “economic strategy has failed Australians”.

Albanese, who has been escalating his direct attacks on Taylor, described the opposition leader as “Temu Abbott … trying to press buttons”.

The former Liberal prime minister was elected unopposed as party president last week, and Liberal MPs have also noted the growing similarities between Taylor’s rhetoric and that of his predecessor.

Albanese also alluded to discussions about an alliance between the Coalition and One Nation, adding: “Those in the ‘Liberal One National’ coalition of the three parties speak about battlers from time to time, but give a battler a wage increase and they hate it.”

In an earlier speech to parliament, Albanese said the government’s tax changes would make it easier for first home buyers to enter the property market.

“Teachers and nurses and cleaners, police officers, people in retail and hospitality, millions of Australians who work their guts out to make ends meet and provide for their families have probably never even heard of a discretionary trust, and they will never have the means or the opportunity to use one to minimise the tax that they pay,” he said.