3w ago

Kate Chaney: By increasing the GST to 15%, we could make the tax system fairer for younger Australians

www.theguardian.com

By increasing the GST to 15%, we could make the tax system fairer for younger Australians | Kate Chaney

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By stopping the corruption in the mining sector, where politicians give the miners all of our resources tax free, and then get fat jobs with the miners, we could have everything we need and more.
How about we just stop the corruption, and get our free university, hospitals, and everything else like a modern country should.
- By stopping the corruption in the mining sector, where politicians give the miners all of our resources tax free, and then get fat jobs with the miners, we could have everything we need and more
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tried to tax big miners
  It didn't end well for him.
  👇👇
  Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd says three of the world’s biggest mining multinationals have run sophisticated operations to kill off climate action in Australia and continue to wield day-to-day influence over government through a vast lobbying network and an “umbilical” relationship with the Murdoch media.
  “Glencore, Rio [Tinto] and BHP ran sophisticated political operations against my government, both on climate change and the mining tax” he told the Guardian.
  “They worked hard … to get rid of the resource super profit tax, against the interests of other mining companies and the national economy as a whole. They worked hard … in 2013 against the carbon price. They succeeded in both enterprises.”
  Rudd attributes the day-to-day influence of the sector to two mechanisms. The first is what he describes as the vast lobbying network it uses to pressure political parties. The second is its close relationship with the Murdoch media, which owns most of the country’s print media. Rudd describes the relationship as “umbilical”.
  “When did you last see the Murdoch media critical of any of these corporations?” Rudd said. “Rarely. If ever.”
  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/10/mining-firms-worked-kill-off-climate-action-australia-ex-pm-kevin-rudd
  ______________________________
  By the way, nobody is forcing people to read Murdoch media (The Australian / Herald Sun / Daily Telegraph / Courrier Mail / Sky News).
  Rupert Murdoch is a criminal but millions of citizens are voluntarily consuming his crap.
  
  Hmmm, the fact that Rudd tried and failed to carry out a difficult but fundamentally positive reform is not a very strong case against pursuing it again in the future, for better or worse political progress is almost always multiple failed attempts punctuated by small iterative steps forward.
  The idea that Murdoch's influence is down to the consumers is pretty naive. The Murdoch media is so dominant that it has the capacity to poison every narrative, while one can seek alternative sources those sources struggle financially and can't market themselves to compete effectively. Added to this is the fact that their dominance means that nearly all incidental news exposure will be Murdoch, they are the papers on the stands, they are the news breaks after sports matches, they are favoured by social media algorithms. Not everyone has the time or inclination to put in the substantial daily work to combat this, Murdoch media dominance is a systemic problem, not one of individual choice.
What a load of shit. That's not a bold new step... It's a bold-faced lie.
- Consumption taxes tax the poor, the most (proportionally). Taxing the poor and corporate whores... Name a more iconic duo!
Oh fuck off Kate.
Any time the "blue ribbon" teals talk about what is good for the economy we must remember that to them "the economy" = rich arseholes yachts. Their constituents are wealthy and economically conservative, and in no way want things to become fair.
So raising the GST will be worse for everyone who works for a living and have negligible effect on those who have accumulated wealth.
This is bad policy for everyone except the high income earners. You can bet that $3300 per year won't be adjusted for inflation and we'll just end up paying more tax.
Remember when governments took bold steps – deregulating the dollar, introducing the [GST]...
Clearly the Australian electorate agrees with Kate and that is why the Australian Democrats are the third largest parliamentary grouping behind Labor and the Coalition.
Under our model, the GST rate would increase to 15% and exemptions would be removed. To ensure equity, every Australian adult would receive a $3,300 annual payment, effectively making the first $22,000 of spending GST-free. PBO modelling shows this could leave the bottom 60% of income earners better off, even before accounting for the personal income tax cuts enabled by the additional $24bn in revenue.
I whole heartedly support this. Spot on.
- I don't believe it. They pitched the GST to us in 1999 as "You'll receive more money in your pay packet and that will offset the 10% GST". Sounds a lot like this.
  I was making about $35k in 2000, and that extra money? It amounted to about $18/week. Needless to say, it did not go far at offsetting the 10% on stuff.
  From this experience, I learned that governments are like people when it comes to getting paid: Nobody ever asks for a pay cut.
  If they're changing tax laws, it's to end up with more money at the end. Taxes are never cut, they're shuffled around in a way to make the government more money.
  
  Weird take.
  In a democracy, you can see exactly how your tax money is spent.
  In the interceding years your income taxes would be much higher if not for GST.
  If they're changing tax laws, it's to end up with more money at the end.
  In this case, this is true. Quite obviously the intention is to get more money from companies and less from low income earners.
  that extra money? It amounted to about $18/week.
  In this case, it's $3,300 a year - enough to pay the tax on the first $22k of expenditures. It's right there in the proposal. No one is saying "I support 15% GST in return for a vague hand wavy notion of lower taxes".
- GST first. Payments come later.
  Much. Much later.
  
  I dont think that would get much support, do you?
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