Here is just a little of what Liberal & National party members - and their governments - refuse to understand as they support a far-right economic platform which is built on a reduction in corporate tax rates, high business profits and large management salaries in conjunction with employee wage supression, erosion of workers' rights, an increase in employment insecurity based on casual, part-time and/or employees as sham contractors and, further restrictions on eligibility for a number of basic welfare payments.
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
10 April 2018:
Last year, as the
government prepared another round of welfare crackdowns, Minister Michaelia
Cash said she expects “that those who can work should work and our welfare
system should be there as a genuine safety net, not as something that people
can choose to fund their lifestyle.”
The subtext was clear –
those who need help are a drain on the rest of us.
This rhetoric is
familiar, but it is wrong. It is the wealthiest Australians who enjoy the most
support.
Research commissioned by
Anglicare Australia shows that each year, a staggering $68 billion is spent
keeping the wealthiest households wealthy. That is greater than the cost of
Newstart, disability support, the age pension, or any other single welfare group.
The Cost of Privilege
report, prepared by Per Capita, models four household types to show how these
concessions and tax breaks work. One of the couples we modelled, Tim and
Michelle, own their own home. They have two children in private schools, top
health insurance, and two investment properties. Michelle doesn’t work, and Tim
runs a small business. Each year, Tim and Michelle get $99,708 in concessions
from the taxpayer, or $1917 per week. That is well over twice as much as a
couple with two children on Newstart, and nearly three times as much as a
family with one parent on the Disability Support Pension. Tim and Michelle do
this by getting concessions on their superannuation, negatively gearing their
investment properties to minimise their taxable income, and getting tax breaks
for private schools and private health insurance. They also get generous
Capital Gains Tax exemptions.
Each year, thousands of
Australia's wealthiest households profit from these loopholes and subsidies.
Our report finds that tax exemptions on private healthcare and education for
the wealthiest 20 per cent cost more than $3 billion a year.
Superannuation
concessions to them cost over $20 billion a year, and their Capital Gains Tax
exemptions cost an astonishing $40 billion a year. Compare that to the annual
cost of Newstart, which comes in at just under $11 billion a year.
Importantly, nothing
that Tim and Michelle are doing is wrong or illegal. This is not a broken
system. It is a system working exactly the way it was designed to work,
supporting the wealthiest at the expense of the rest of us.
These numbers tell us
that something has gone badly wrong. The eighties were the decade of
trickle-down economics, where taxes were cut for the richest with the promise
that everyone else would soon feel the benefits. But now it’s worse – we’re in
an era of trickle-up economics where subsidies, tax breaks and concessions for
the richest are paid for by everyone else.....
Anglicare Australia, 26 March 2018:
Cost of Privilege Report (.pdf)
Cost of Privilege - overview (.pdf)
Cost of Privilege - households (.pdf)
ABC
News, 15
April 2018:
One in every five
Australian children has gone hungry in the past 12 months according to a new
report, with some even resorting to chewing paper to try to feel full.
The survey of 1,000
parents commissioned by Foodbank shows 22 per cent of Australian children under
the age of 15 live in a household that has ran out of food at some stage over
the past year.
One in five kids
affected go to school without eating breakfast at least once a week, while one
in 10 go a whole day at least once a week without eating anything at all.
"I think that's a
very sad indictment on us as a society," said Foodbank Victoria chief
executive Dave McNamara…..
"Some kids were eating paper. Their parents had told them
'There's not enough food, if you get hungry you'll need to chew paper.'"
"This isn't made
up. This is a story we heard setting up one of our school breakfast programs
down in Lakes Entrance, which is a beautiful part of the country."
"No-one's spared.
It's not people on the street; it's people in your street. It's in every
community across Australia."
Foodbank Victoria graphic below based on its Rumbling Tummies Report, April 2018:
No comments:
Post a Comment