Taxing savers and investors the key to delivering in the May budget

The NDIS will care for some of our most vulnerable – but not all of them. Care for the Aged is just as crucial.

In order to 'break through' to cynical Australians who have 'switched off' from Labor, the government needs big initiatives that capture the public's imagination. The government needs to mobilise the welfare sector, labour movement and other social movements behind it with a raft of measures unprecedented in our time. Yet another dilemma is how to find ways of actually delivering to the public between now and September in such a way as to avoid cynicism about 'distant' promises.

By withdrawing superannuation concessions for the wealthy and reducing dividend imputation Federal Labor can amass a very substantial war chest.

One thing is clear. Without very substantial reforms bringing in the revenue for the coming May Federal Budget Labor will be left with very limited options. Labor cannot afford to 'lose its nerve' on the revenue front: "spooked" by a vocal and self-interested upper and upper-middle class. 'Business as usual' will not win Labor the election.