Andrew Leigh

According to the Prime Minister, today caps off a year of “great achievement”.

It was the year Malcolm Turnbull‘s Government stuffed-up the Census.

First, they failed to effectively address community concerns about the increase to the period for which names and addresses will be retained.

• Then they wasted millions of hours of Australians’ time by urging us to log on to the Census website even after it had crashed.
• Finally, they tried to avoid taking responsibility for the debacle by blaming the hard-working public servants whom the government had stripped of funding and resources.  

It was the year Malcolm Turnbull’s Government ducked strong multinational tax action by abandoning thin capitalisation reforms.

• Prior to Budget night, the Government was briefing journalists that it would reduce the “safe harbour” level in the thin capitalisation rules from 60 per cent of total assets to 50 per cent. This was to cut the amount of debt multinational companies can load into their Australian subsidiaries
• But it seems vested interests got to the Treasurer and the measure vanished from the budget – although a definition of “thin capitalisation law” still sits in the glossary of terms for the 2016 Budget, published online by Treasury.

It was the year Malcolm Turnbull’s Government couldn’t deliver the tax cut it promised Australians before the election.

On Budget night, the Government promised to increase the 32.5 per cent personal income tax threshold from $80,001 to $87,000.

• Scott Morison said they would implement this tax cut from 1 July 2016.
• Australians are still waiting for their tax cut that Malcolm Turnull promised.

After a year of stuff-ups, Malcolm Turnbull has shown he just isn't up to the job.