Federal election 2019: Massive swings against Labor in franking credit seats

Labor MP Mike Kelly has [used the figures to] urged the party to consider dumping the current policy settings, saying it should be "grandfathered or include relief for low income earners" in the wake of the election result. "I heard it loud and clear," he said.

The policy helped lose Bill Shorten the election on Saturday - as retirees down the east coast protested the $6 billion-a-year move to strip them and their families of tax refunds.

In the key NSW marginal seat of Lindsay, which the Coalition won from Labor on Saturday night, the Opposition had swings of nearly 6 per cent against it in booths in Penrith and Emu Plains, where over-60s made up 17 per cent of the vote.

Banks, where Labor had hoped to gain an surprise win over Immigration Minister David Coleman, had the largest swings to the Coalition among those electorates with significant populations aged over 60, shifting between 10 and 16 per cent of the vote away from Labor in Picnic Point and Riverwood.

Labor lost up to 5 per cent of voters in booths in Reid where 17 per cent of its population is aged over 60. The electorate was one of the most visited of the campaign, along with key seats in Queensland, where Labor lost Longman and Herbert after swings against it in areas with high retiree populations.

Labor is now grappling with the rejection of its big policy agenda. Former Victorian premier Steve Bracks - a close friend of Bill Shorten - also said the party should have grandfathered key parts of its $32 billion tax package.

"I think now Labor has to probably dump these policies, move on, and look at the sort of policies of fairness and redistribution in a different way," he told the ABC on Monday.

Former trade minister Craig Emerson said the loss redefined how Opposition's should operate.

"In a perverse way I think the public wants you to be honest, but not too honest," he said. "But I don't think a political party should say we lost, therefore we should dump all our policies."

The cost of tax refunds for franking credits are set to blow out from $4.4 billion this year to $7.1 billion a year by 2029, costing $58 billion over a decade, creating a revenue dilemma for whoever is in government.

The policy was dismantled through a "retiree tax" campaign run by Liberal MP Tim Wilson and the founder of Wilson Asset management Geoff Wilson. Geoff Wilson told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age he would not have run against the policy if it had of grandfathered or capped at $10,000.

"It wouldn't have had the passion," he said. "You just would have had rich people at the inquiry, it would have become a non issue."

Labor leadership contender Anthony Albanese said on Sunday he would "articulate not just how we share wealth but how we create wealth," in a veiled criticism of Labor's tax redistribution platform.

He went further on Monday, stating on Adelaide's 5AA radio the franking credits policy "impacted on people's hip pockets, and some of those, of course, weren't very wealthy people".

Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said misinformation and Labor's large agenda had confused voters, with the tax on franking credits - used by retirees to fund their retirement and hand down to their children- often tied to claims Labor was plotting an "inheritance tax" or a "death tax".

Pressure is growing on Labor's economic team to account for why voters did not respond to their platform.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen is considering contesting for the Labor leadership, but some in the party believe he is too closely tied to the party's franking credit and negative gearing changes.

"He would have made a fabulous treasurer but he tried to be treasurer from Opposition," said a Labor source.

Mr Bowen said there would be a full review of what went wrong. "Every new election is a blank slate," he said.