Governments are the Robin Hoods of the modern world, taking money from the better off so as to hand it to those who need it. But the Merry Men would have been left scratching their heads when Anthony Albanese announced his first big pre-election pitch at the weekend.

That’s because, although plenty of dollars were thrown around, they’re for a reverse-Robin Hood. Albanese announced a big tax cut for higher income earners … but only for those higher earners who went to university or TAFE. Yep, the prime minister’s big reveal was that less well-off Australians will be tapped to pay for a bigger subsidy to those who are better off.

He didn’t quite put it that way. Instead, Albanese declared a $16 billion cut to student debt would be “the first thing we do in our second term”, arguing it would make Australia “fairer”.

Them’s the bucks ... non-graduate taxpayers will be among the masses giving this $16 billion tax break to higher-paid graduates. Credit: Andrew Meares

Except … people with student debts are comfortably better off than most Australians. If you went to uni, your lifetime income is about a third higher than those who didn’t. Even after the tax man gets his cut, that’s........

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