Anthony Albanese says he will ‘stand by’ stage three tax cuts as Liberal MP joins calls to scrap them

PM commits to keeping cuts but stops short of ironclad guarantee that there will be no tweaks

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Anthony Albanese says his government has not changed our opinion" on the stage three tax cuts for high-earning Australians and will stand by the controversial $243bn package because Labor had failed to stop it being legislated when in opposition.

But when pressed to explicitly rule out any alterations to the plan, under which all Australians earning between $45,000 and $200,000 would pay the same tax rate, the prime minister stopped short of an ironclad guarantee, giving critics of the cuts some hope of wiggle room.