Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers is doubling down on his call for the Liberal Party to rebrand itself, following the party's recent budget announcements. Chalmers believes that the Liberal Party's policies need to resonate with modern Australia, and that the party's brand has become disconnected from its traditional values. He argues that the party's current approach is failing to cut through with voters, despite its policies being popular among certain demographics. The comments come as the government faces criticism over its handling of the cooling housing market, with Chalmers defending the government's decision to maintain a capital gains tax discount. Chalmers' suggestion that the Liberal Party needs to rebrand itself is likely to be seen as a bold move, and could be seen as a nod to the party's need to adapt to changing voter preferences and demographics.
McIntosh doubles down on call for Liberal ‘rebrand’. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastChalmers defends house price forecastsThe government has been facing some heat over the cooling house market around Australia with falling auction clearance rates, and forecasts that house prices in Sydney and Melbourne could fall more than $100,000.Auction clearance rates in Brisbane came up on the weekend, if you compare the preliminary numbers from the week before. They also came up in Adelaide. They came up nationally in aggregate, as I understand it. But in Sydney and Melbourne, we saw some softness there, that actually predated the budget announcements.It doesn’t make a lot of sense to replace one big distortion that Howard and Costello introduced when they made that big policy mistake in 1999 and ruined the housing market for too many people, especially young people; [it] doesn’t make sense to replace that big distortion with another big distortion.And so we’re applying this CGT discount – there’s still a discount, just calculated differently to reflect real gains – we’re applying it fairly and neutrally across the board so that we don’t introduce another big distortion and repeat the mistakes.Some people think that we’re stuck in the past and our policies need to resonate with the Australia of today and the future. So I think it’d be a really good time for us to revisit our values.If things aren’t resonating, and if people are actually latching on to our policies and believing in that, but they’re not wanting to vote for us, then maybe we need to do something about the brand,I want us to have more cut-through on our policies. I worked for John Howard back in the day, and my patch, we were the Howard battlers, we’re the Menzies Forgotten people, and we’re Tony Tradie. So we are pretty much the heartland of Australia. And when the heartland of Australia tells you that you need to get more cut-through to get more voters on your side, then you need to listen to the people. Continue reading...
