THURSDAY SHOW - 15th October 📻

Well, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been forced to deny he's been overruled by his own prime minister.

Anthony Albanese has indicated he personally intervened to delay a controversial plan from the tax office.

The ATO had announced it would stop accepting credit cards, sparking outrage from small businesses.

But the Prime Minister has revealed he stepped in.

This was after receiving a text message from the head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce, Andrew McKellar.

Andrew did text me last Thursday morning, and, uh, by Friday morning, uh, we had, uh, an announcement.

And, uh, that was an example of, uh, a relationship that takes time to develop as well.

That trust where you can have a discussion saying, "It's in hand.

Uh, I agree with, uh, what you are saying."

You see, that's how you get things done.

You text the Prime Minister, and then he fixes it.

And that's when the government announced they were backflipping.

Credit card payments to the tax office would remain for now, and the final decision would be kicked down the road.

The revelation has raised questions about whether the PM went over the Treasurer's head.

Jim Chalmers denies that he was overruled.

Uh, Prime Minister and I were in discussions on Wednesday of last week.

Uh, he had a view, and I agree with it, uh, that we needed to step in to provide this longer transition period.

Oh, I see.

So Jim was overruled, even though Jim says he wasn't overruled, because if you pay attention to his words, the Treasurer says, "The PM had a view, and I agreed with it." In other words, it was not the Treasurer's idea.

It was the PM's.

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