Taylor’s rebooted death tax scare franchise is flimsy. But it might stick

Updated May 18, 2026 — 2:00pm,first published 1:58pm

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Ever since Australia’s state and federal governments abolished deceased estate taxes in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the prospect of any government reviving that levy on the grieving has been politically toxic.

Even the hint of such a move is enough to start retirees gnashing their teeth. For an opposition desperate to take some paint off the government, the prospect of a scare campaign over the return of death duties (no matter how unlikely) has proved irresistible.

Oppositions run scare campaigns, no matter how tendentious, because they work. Like the creepy figure who appears in the mirror in a horror movie, it’s predictable but always effective.

Labor’s infamous “Mediscare” campaign in 2016 is a case in point. Bill Shorten exploited the idea that the Turnbull government could privatise Medicare to devastating effect, even though it was baseless. It didn’t matter – Labor won back a........

© WA Today