The Coalition would pay for its proposed income tax cuts by gutting flagship Labor policies to the tune of $31bn. Angus Taylor on Monday released costings for the opposition’s Tax Back Guarantee, which pins income tax brackets to inflation. Typical workers would receive $250 in the first year, rising annually to $1,000 in the fourth year, according to the policy.

The Opposition Leader said that when governments spend “too much money”, they drive up inflation and need to “tax more”. “And that is exactly what we are seeing right now with the toxic taxes from Labor, particularly focused on small businesses, their trust tax, capital gains tax, negative gearing, and no doubt there will be more … because this government has lost control of its spending,” he said.

The proposed cuts target “climate bureaucracy”, abolishing the Net Zero Economy Agency and reforming the Australian Renewable Energy Agency while scrapping electric vehicle concessions and the home batteries program. Other areas include industry subsidies for green hydrogen, aluminium and critical minerals, end the Help to Buy initiative and Build to Rent tax breaks, which Mr Taylor decried as “corporate welfare”. The plan also targets social services for non-citizens and leans on extra funds clawed back from black-market tobacco sales.

Opposition treasury spokesman Tim Wilson said the policy provides “a clear way to address the challenge of inflation in the economy” and “to back Australians … to keep the money from their hard work”. “Now more than ever, with rising costs, households and particularly Australian small businesses need economic hope,” he said. “They need confidence to look to the horizon and believe they can have a better economic future than they have today. “Instead, they have been crushed by rising costs directly connected to government spending and that’s why we need a reprieve, we need a change, and particularly we need a change of government so that Australians have hope on their horizon.”