On 1 July 2018 Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull proudly reminded his fellow Australians that the planned personal income tax cuts had started that day.
He was careful not to point out that to get that $530 tax refund next year this nurse or school teacher would have to earn above the average full-time wage in their respective professions.
Turnbull was also careful not to mention that these personal tax cuts excluded the lowest income earners - many of whom would be hit with the second tranche of penalty rate cuts which came into force on 1 July as well.
While the fact that on 1 July he just happens to get a 2 per cent parliamentary pay rise for the third year in a row, during a period of extremely low wage growth for ordinary workers, passes without mention as well.
It did not go unnoticed...........
This week saw criticism
of Labor starting a class war. But the real class war is being fought by
those who seek to erase people on low and middle incomes from the debate. And
too often the media are willing participants in this erasure.
Let us be honest:
Australia is a nation whose politicians are for the most part drawn from
similar socioeconomic (and education) backgrounds, covered by journalists who
(including myself) come from similar backgrounds, and where any interruption to
this course of events – such as when
Ricky Muir was elected to the Senate – is greeted with a barely
disguised level of condescension that someone not university educated or white
collar has deigned to enter the sanctum.
It is a situation of
course not solely devoted to income – gender and especially race are also major
factors at play. In positions of power we remain a very white, relatively
well-paid male nation (and I speak as one of that group).
It is not a situation
without consequences.
Retirement age of 70?
Well, that seems doable to one who sits behind a desk. The shift of jobs to the
services sector? Well, after all, who would want to work in a factory? Low
levels of industrial disputes? That must be good – let me quote some measure of
international competitiveness while I pass over these record
low wages growth and wonder at the coincidence.
It’s the type of
thinking that has journalists asking “Is $120,000 the new rich” because that
will generate a headline without even caring that it is more than double the
median income.
And it is why I have
little time for the theatre criticism that can infest political coverage where
journalists writing for publications whose target audience is the very
wealthiest in our society talk about how Labor’s “class war” attacks on Malcolm
Turnbull are poor politics that won’t fly, and are divisive.
That’s pretty rich given
today low-paid fast-food, hospitality, pharmacy and retail workers around the
country are seeing cuts to their penalty rates.
Let us not fall into the
trap of believing we can’t suggest that the situation and wealth of those in
power has no impact on the policies they put forward, even while such policies
actually benefit those same people who are putting them in place.
Oh no, we must instead
keep to the myth that Australia is some egalitarian paradise where our history
is one of everyone buckling down and working together to forge a nation against
the odds. Bugger the rum rebellion, put John Macarthur on
the $2 note, and bask in the warmth of misremembered history……
We see this erasure in
his speeches where he talks of “school principals and police superintendents”
to describe those deserving of a tax cuts as being somehow not wealthy – indeed
as very much middle class.
The
base level salary for a Victorian police superintendent is $154,412,
the median salary for a Victorian school principal in 2015-16 was $113,446.
That someone would use such incomes to talk up tax cuts says all you need to
know about who he sees as the most deserving.
And here I must admit
the media is often hostage to this erasure as well.
Upon the passing of the
income tax cuts, one newspaper ran the line “What do low-medium income earners
get?” and noted that “From July next year, Australians who earn up to $125,333
will get up to $530 cash-back when they lodge their tax return”.
In 2017
the median income was $52,988 and the top 10% of employees earned more
than $109,668. Congratulations to those in the top 10%, you’re now officially
middle-income Australia.
It means those who are
actually middle and low-income workers are effectively erased from the debate –
their situation ignored, and where to even raise it draws a rebuke – how dare
you play the class war card! Why do you hate deserving middle class like the
police superintendent?
The budget, despite what
we might be led to believe, given the tax cuts that have just been passed
without any savings measures attached, is not a magic pudding. Money spent on
tax cuts to those presented as middle class but who are actually wealthy, means
less money for those on actual low and middle incomes.
We do have a class war
in Australia, and right now it is being won by those who not only would have
you believe it is not occurring – and should not be mentioned – but who also
would have you believe that those who are actually well off are doing it tough.
We need to be honest
about who makes decisions in this country, how they are made and who they
benefit. And we need to be honest about what is the reality for people on low
and middle incomes. Failure to do so not only erases them from the debate, it
ensures the system remains unchanged.
Read the full
article here.
