The ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) wants the government to rescind unaffordable tax cuts for people on higher incomes to invest in public services and support for the people who have the least.
“How do we pay for all this?” Dr Emma Campbell, CEO of ACTCOSS, asked the Federal election candidates at a recent forum. “How do we pay for a just society? Well, let’s get rid of the notion that the trickle-down effect works.
“Please commit to rescinding the unaffordable tax cuts for those on the highest incomes, disproportionately men. Because that will not flow into the pockets of the people with the least, and we won’t be able to fund our public services without a solid and strong revenue base.”
Labor was committed to increasing the tax base, Dr Andrew Leigh MP, member for Fenner, said. A multinational tax package, announced the day before the ACTCOSS forum, would ensure multinational companies paid their fair share, and add billions of dollars to the budget bottom line. According to Labor, Australians shoulder $1 trillion in public debt, which should be available for vital services like Medicare, aged care, and child care.
“It’s not fair on Australian business when multinational firms are shipping profits off to tax havens like the Caymans,” Dr Leigh said. “Multinational tax dodging is an issue I’ve been working on for much of my 11 years in the Parliament, and I’m confident that we can raise revenue in a way that adds to fairness at the same time.”
However, Labor supported, and (as the ABC reported today) will keep, the Coalition government’s proposed Stage 3 tax cuts, under which people earning between $45,000 and $200,000 will pay 30 per cent in tax from 2024. Previously, people earning above $120,000 were taxed 37 per cent.
According to the Australia Institute, federal politicians, bank CEOs, and surgeons will get a tax cut of more than $9,000, while aged care workers, disability carers, and minimum wage employees will get nothing. Similarly, economist Peter Martin AM fears the tax cuts will leave middle earners worse off.
The Greens estimate these tax cuts will give between $62 and $95 billion to billionaires and big corporations, a third of which do not pay tax.
Instead, the Greens propose taxing billionaires and big corporations: a new corporate super-profits tax of 40 per cent on big corporations; an annual extra 6 per cent wealth tax on billionaires; taxing the mega-profits of big corporations earning more than $100 million annually; cracking down on multinational tax avoidance; and ending government handouts to billionaires and big corporations.
“We are living in one of the wealthiest countries in the history of the world,” Tim Hollo, Greens candidate for Canberra, said. “Most of that wealth is gushing upwards at a great rate. We need to put a wealth tax in this country, tax corporations that aren’t paying tax, so that we can lift people in poverty out of poverty.”
“We need a more egalitarian society where we take care of people,” Dr Tjanara Goreng Goreng, Greens Senate candidate, told Canberra Daily, “and the rich ought not to be so greedy that they don’t pay their taxes at the same level that other people have to pay their taxes.
“What’s going on in the head of somebody who decides they’re going to try to keep as much money as they can for themselves, or their corporation or their shareholders, and not provide to the rest of Australia, so that we can provide to other people who have need?
“If you’re trying to avoid tax by using the tax system and the loopholes, then you are acting out of greed. It’s an immoral attitude, in a way, because it’s not seeing the need in the whole of society, and not considering yourself to be a member of this society.”
Read more:
- Federal candidates address social priorities at ACTCOSS forum
- Candidates respond to ACTCOSS call to increase income support
- Housing security a priority for Federal candidates
- ACTCOSS wants more funding for community services
- ACTCOSS calls for fair, fast, inclusive climate action
- ACTCOSS wants justice for First Nations people
