Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended the leadership abilities of his treasurer despite a botched ban on credit card use that would have hurt thousands of small businesses.
The Australian Taxation Office recently abruptly announced it would stop taking credit card payments after the Reserve Bank banned passing on surcharges to customers.
That was immediately criticised by business owners and the coalition, which said the changes would hurt families already doing it tough.
It prompted the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Andrew McKellar, to contact the prime minister directly and request the government intervene.
”That was an example of a relationship that takes time to develop. That trust, where you can have a discussion and say ‘it is in hand, I agree with what you are saying, and I will get it done’,” Mr Albanese told a commerce industry gala.
Shortly after the text, Treasurer Jim Chalmers fronted the media and confirmed the government would cover surcharge costs while undertaking more consultation.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor on Wednesday called for the prime minister to put Dr Chalmers “out of his misery and sack him”.
But Mr Albanese insisted he had worked closely with the treasurer before making the decision.
“We unanimously, right across the leadership of the government, agreed that the decision by the ATO … needed to be extended,” he told Question Time.
“We completely agreed in a way that was consistent with how we do good government.”
The back-and-forth showed that Mr Albanese had a “kink for punishing small businesses” and a “fetish for humiliating his treasurer”, shadow treasurer Tim Wilson said.
”I see this as a consistent pattern of behaviour where the prime minister constantly goes in, overrides his treasurer, humiliates him in public,” Mr Wilson told News24.
Dr Chalmers insisted he hadn’t been rolled by the prime minister on the issue and said he had already discussed intervening in the ban before Mr Albanese made the call.
“The prime minister and I had the same view,” he said.
Still, Dr Chalmers conceded more research should have occurred before the ban was announced.
“It’s self-evident and it’s clear that more consultation should have happened,” he told reporters.
“That’s the reason we provided we’re providing the resources to the ATO to take more time.”
He would not confirm if the credit card ban was likely to be overturned entirely, saying more conversations were required.
Australian Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national newswire and has been delivering accurate, reliable and fast news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We keep Australia informed.
