Labor’s tax reform con was 18 months in the grifting

In the crime classic The Grifters, ruthless con artists lure vulnerable folk into a false sense of security before picking them clean and leaving them ruined.

A remarkably similar long con has been unfolding in Australia over the past 18 months – hidden in plain sight.

Only this time, the story is not fiction.

Allegra Spender nodded along while her own constituents were being carved up in front of her. Alex Ellinghausen

The perpetrators are the government, and their victims are the Australian people.

The first move in the Albanese Government’s con is now familiar to every Australian because they lived through it: the 2025 election of lies.

The prime minister repeatedly promised – on more than 50 occasions – that he would not increase the very taxes he now plans to hike.

It was political dishonesty of the highest order.

But it worked.

I argued at the time that it was a plot to lay the ground to increase taxes on capital.

Labor stormed to victory with 94 seats in the House of Representatives.

Then came the second move.

Unlike the election campaign, this phase unfolded behind closed doors.

The setting was a heavily publicised economic reform roundtable, orchestrated by the treasurer: polished and carefully stage-managed but a complete ruse.

Business, union and community leaders – 23 in total – were invited to the three-day talkfest in the cabinet room. I was one of them.

I argued at the time that it was a plot to lay the ground to increase taxes on capital.

I openly disagreed with the treasurer at the table, arguing that fiscal repair must begin with spending restraint.

I watched as big government and big unions colluded right in front of me about how to convince young people that higher taxes on capital would serve the cause of “intergenerational equity”.

Like someone who stumbled into the wrong meeting, I wondered: “You know I’m sitting here watching all of this, right?”

Under lofty rhetoric, participants were encouraged to believe the government wanted their views on reform.

The symbolism was deliberate; heavyweights from across the Australian economy standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the government.

Allegra Spender nodded along while her own constituents were being carved up in front of her.

Spender, along with most around that table, gave the government the benefit of the doubt, and some are only now raising concerns.

At the roundtable’s conclusion, the treasurer declared “consensus”. I refused to endorse it.

For Labor, it worked.

They were applauded for bringing business, unions and civil society together so that “no one would be left behind”.

Fast forward to May 2026, and after months of reinforcing the theme the government planted into the roundtable – “intergenerational equity” – it was time for the third and final act: the federal budget.

It was all going swimmingly in the lead-up, with government assurances of restraint and responsibility.

Australians were ready for the big reveal.

The drum rolled and the curtain dropped.

And there the budget lay – dead on arrival.

By attacking after-tax returns on capital with changes to negative gearing, capital gains tax and discretionary trusts, the con was finally exposed.

The prime minister and treasurer attempted a cover-up, claiming the budget’s reforms were a “changed position”.

This was another lie – their intent to go after capital was unmistakable at the roundtable.

The prime minister and treasurer may be the masterminds behind this heist, but every Labor MP and senator was elected on the back of promises now broken.

A central theme of The Grifters is that the “grift” acts as a moral rot that infects and corrupts ordinary, honest people.

Whether the rot spreads through Labor’s parliamentary ranks remains to be seen. It is too early to tell, as backbenchers are gagged from speaking publicly or freely in caucus.

Each one has a decision to make: entangle in a web of deceit or stand up for the Australian people.

Truth has a habit of stripping lies bare.

The Grifters ends with betrayal and ruin.

Labor’s backbench will decide its own fate.

If they don’t put Australians first, the final verdict will come at the ballot box.