The middle class vs. the poor: Why the Coalition wants them to fight

05/11/23 • 17 min

2 Listeners

Since the budget dropped on Tuesday night, the Coalition and some parts of the media have begun to pick a very strange fight.

It’s over whether some of the most vulnerable in the community should really get more help than middle-class Australian households with two incomes.

It pits the two against each other and ignores a much bigger cost coming down the pipeline: tax cuts that will benefit the wealthiest Australians the most.

Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper, Paul Bongiorno on the strange politics at play and why there are bigger questions we should be asking.

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Guest: Columnist for The Saturday Paper, Paul Bongiorno.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since the budget dropped on Tuesday night, the Coalition and some parts of the media have begun to pick a very strange fight.

It’s over whether some of the most vulnerable in the community should really get more help than middle-class Australian households with two incomes.

It pits the two against each other and ignores a much bigger cost coming down the pipeline: tax cuts that will benefit the wealthiest Australians the most.

Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper, Paul Bongiorno on the strange politics at play and why there are bigger questions we should be asking.

Socials: Stay in touch with us on Twitter and Instagram

Guest: Columnist for The Saturday Paper, Paul Bongiorno.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Previous Episode

Peter Dutton’s Liberal party is turning on its closest ally

There’s one relationship the Liberal Party has always prized: its relationship with business.

Other support bases for the party have ebbed and flowed, but the party has always drawn from the ranks of corporate Australia, and advocated for their interests.

Now, strangely as the party finds itself in electoral crisis, its federal leader, Peter Dutton, is speaking out against heads of business on a surprising topic: the Voice to Parliament.

Today, former Liberal MP and contributor to The Saturday Paper Julia Banks, on how the Liberal Party is losing corporate Australia.

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Guest: Former Liberal MP, lawyer and leadership consultant, Julia Banks.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Next Episode

Farewell, Stuart Robert. We hardly knew ye.

There comes a time when politicians say ‘enough is enough’ and they leave parliament.

Often they depart the stage without anyone really noticing, other times it’s worth pausing and marking their storied parliamentary careers.

That’s the case for Stuart Robert, who has called time on politics after 16 years – during which time he presided over the robo debt scandal, a bag of Rolexes, and made his name as Scott Morrison’s ‘brother Stewie’.

Today, senior reporter for The Saturday Paper Rick Morton on the incredible parliamentary life of Stuart Robert and the last scandal hanging over his departure.

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Guest: Senior reporter for The Saturday Paper, Rick Morton

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.