Outrageous example proves you are paying for Jim Chalmers' spendathon

Today is the day, July 1, when the so-called Stage Three income tax cuts start to take effect.

Government advertising selling the tax cuts has been underway for a while now but it will ramp up in the coming weeks and months.

Every Australian earning an income above $18,200 a year will receive some form of a tax cut.

If you’re earning $30,000 a year you get $6.81 more in your pay packet each week. If you earn $80,000 it’s $32.29.

Someone earning $150,000 gets $71.71 more. A $200,000 a year earner gets $87.10 extra in their pay packet each week.

Check the official Australian government tax calculator here to see how big your tax return will be

The tax cuts have now been rebranded by the Labor government as ‘cost of living tax cuts’, and the sales pitch is on in earnest.

Voters don’t have to do anything to be eligible for these tax cuts. There are no forms to fill out.

The extra money is automatically added to your next pay packet when it lands in your bank account.

Anthony Albanese's government spent years in Opposition arguing that government advertising was too partisan and didn’t focus enough on providing serious information over spin. Now, here we are...

So in a sense it doesn’t really matter what you do and don’t know about them. You’ll get the benefits of the tax cuts and be able to use the extra money to deal with the rising cost of goods and services.

Or to help cover the cost of increases in your mortgage payments courtesy of all those interest rate rises in recent years.

It comes as further rate rises are now also more likely in August and September courtesy of inflation remaining higher than it should be.

But getting these tax cuts may push inflation further north, pushing up prices and interest rates.

However, without the tax cuts the impact of bracket creep would be even worse than it already is. We pay more income taxes than most other advanced countries do.

So you can see from the above how the government sells these tax cuts matters, to it at least.

That’s why it is spending $40m on a mammoth advertising campaign to try and take maximum credit for the tax cuts.

If a tree falls down in a forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?

And crucially for Anthony Albanese's government: if voters gets a tax cut but don’t know that the Labor Party gave it to them does it get the credit?

That there neatly sums up why Labor is spending $40m of taxpayers' money selling and informing you about its tax cuts.

Money well spent to help win the next election.

They have even set up the somewhat Orwellian-named Public Information Branch to help sell the tax cuts.

Employing between 15 and 20 people to craft messages that will appeal to voters. At a cost of $5m, also your tax dollars hard at work.

The Public Information Branch will also strategically buy media space and engage with social media.

An example of one of the taxpayer-funded government ads

More knowledge is always better than less, so knowing what tax cuts we are all getting isn’t a bad thing.

But in the middle of a cost of living crisis it is reasonable to question whether $40m being spent to grow awareness about something that happens automatically is the best way to go.

And that's while the Treasurer is quick to rule out increases in things like the aged pension and unemployment benefits, because there is apparently no room in the budget.

Shortly after Labor was elected it massively cut government funded advertising, having spent years in Opposition arguing that it was too partisan and didn’t focus enough on providing serious information over spin.

Fast forward to today. An election is just around the corner and the opinion polls are considerably tighter than they were when the new Labor government was enjoying its honeymoon. Now, partisan taxpayer funded advertising is back with a vengeance.

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