Yes, Albanese threw Chalmers under the bus, but it was a very small bus

October 15, 2026 — 3:30pm

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been on the rack this week after the ATO decided to stop allowing businesses to pay their tax on their credit cards as it didn’t want to absorb the cost of the credit card surcharges. It sounds like a boring but sensible budget decision by the tax office because taxpayers would be on the hook to cover the additional costs.

But politically it was an absolutely shocker.

The decision suggested the government doesn’t understand the pressures smaller businesses are already facing, including high fuel prices, high inflation and prospective changes to the tax treatment of trusts, of which many businesses make use.

The government’s rapid backdown last Friday, overruling the tax office and delaying the rule change until next financial year (at least), should have been the end of it.

But then the prime minister put his foot in it, unable to resist taking credit (as prime ministers are wont to do) for the political fix during a speech at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (ACCI) gala dinner on Tuesday night.

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“Andrew did text me last Thursday morning, and by Friday morning we had an announcement,” Albanese told guests, referring to the ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar. Such things were possible, the prime minister added, when you’ve taken time to develop relationships with (in this case) business groups.

That would be the very same McKellar who told this column as recently as August that the government didn’t “value enterprise and commercial risk-taking … the........

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