Tax the rich to fund support for the poor – that is how one party will try to win over Australians at the federal election.
Rents, mortgage payments and grocery prices have continued to soar as Australian companies post billion-dollar profits.
The Greens are proposing to increase taxes on corporations, and use that money to fund cost-of-living relief.
Such tax-and-spend policies can be superficially appealing, but do not factor in the likelihood that businesses will simply pass on the increased impost to customers via higher prices, thus maintaining their profit margin but making the cost-of-living crisis worse.
Greens leader Adam Bandt will present his ‘Robin Hood reforms’ to the National Press Club on Wednesday.
‘Big corporations across the economy have squeezed hundreds of billions of dollars out of the public since the end of the pandemic – too much of it tax free,’ he will say.
‘Enough is enough.’
The Greens took the same approach to the last election.
The Greens are suggesting a 40 per cent tax on the ‘super profits’ of most mining projects (pictured, Greens leader Adam Bandt)
This time around, the minor party has updated its costings and identified new companies to target with tax.
One part of the package, which would raise $296billion across a decade, involves imposing a 40 per cent tax on corporations’ excess profits.
This would apply to profits earned on turnover after the first $100million for any Australian corporations or multinational operations in Australia.
Another pillar, applying to offshore gas and oil companies, would raise $111billion by amending the petroleum resource rent tax and forcing them to pay royalties.
The final part of the tax package would impose a 40 per cent tax on the ‘super profits’ of mining projects, apart from those involved in lithium or nickel mining.
The money raised from these taxes could be used to build homes, put dental care into Medicare, or keep Australians out of poverty.
‘It will provide huge amounts of much-needed funding to redirect to everyday people and it will reduce the cost of living,’ Mr Bandt will say.
The Greens demands could hold more sway after the federal election, as Labor is expected to fall into a minority government.
A federal election must be held by May.
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