Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s celebrated Finance Minister, is reported to have said, ‘The act of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to procure the largest quantity of feathers with the least possible amount of squealing.’ Populist politics suggests that policies which allow high earners to keep more of their earnings are always electorally risky, even though such policies have long-term adverse effects on wealth creation.

So, the Labor government has abandoned the Stage 3 tax cuts, which it supported six years ago whilst in Opposition.