Agree, the LNP can play to this but need to do other things as well btw and just can't rely on a negative campaign.
When imputation was introduced it was about not paying tax twice on company profits already taxed in company hands and then the profits been distributed to shareholders. The initial 1980s policy was not about never paying company tax, when in the hands of shareholders by government giving back refunds of company tax paid to shareholders who don't pay tax. It was John Howard in his bribing of the electorate that introduced that policy and a number of other policies, including in the super space, that sent the budget into structural deficit. This is what I suspect the ALP will say btw as well.
Only Australia and NZ have imputation, not even the USA or any other OECD country has imputation. Yes in every other country in the world, dividends distributed to SH bear personal tax (hence the concept of double taxation in the 1980s that Keating's imputation system sought to remove), despite been distribted from company profits that bore the full company tax rate in those countries. That is why people say the corporate tax rate in Oz is competitive - it is because profits distributed are not double taxed unlike the USA despite there 21% corporate tax rate meaning the effective corporate tax rate in the USA is above 40% (noting double taxation of dividends and state income tax there).
The idea about removing double taxation of company profits when distributed to SH was to reduce the wieghted average cost of capital - in a WACC you have a gamma variable, which when all other things are equal mean companies can accept a lower WACC in Oz than say the USA. That was the intent (avoid double taxation not no taxation).
