Australia Is A Wealthy Nation Raising Little Tax Revenue
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We measure ourselves against our peers. Australia is a wealthy nation raising little tax revenue, which is revealed by OECD economic research. It is important to state we are not talking about income tax exclusively here but all revenue raising taxation. Considering Australia is in the top 10 wealthiest countries globally it is surprising that we trail our peers like Canada and New Zealand in raising tax revenue annually. Taxes pay for our public services like Medicare, education, our military, and law and order to name a few important of these essential services.
High Rates Of Poverty For Over 50s In Australia
Digging down a bit deeper into the figures, we, according to economic data sourced from the OECD and highlighted by Greg Jericho from the Australia Institute, trail Canada by some $140 billion a year. This directly feeds into the fact that Australia has one of the highest rates of over 50 YO poverty among the advanced economies of the world. Obviously, the wealth of the nation is not shared equally among our citizens. In fact, we pay among the lowest rates of welfare as a replacement for wages in the OECD. Whether you are on the pension or receiving JobSeeker you are getting less that 30% of a replacement wage equivalent. Really, unless you have savings you are heading for poverty and folks on the pension would not have substantial savings or they wouldn’t be on the pension in the first place. Australians put up with this and seemingly don’t much care about how the other half lives, as long as it is not them.
Mean Spirited Australians & F*ck All Welfare For The Needy
Robodebt was a clear illustration of this, as the LNP Coalition federal government illegally went after half a million Australians doing it tough. This was an ideological attack on so called ‘dole bludgers’ and had plenty of support among working Australians and the media. The fact that PwC, who did reviews into Robodebt, found that there was not a plethora of welfare cheats operating in Australia did not phase Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott, Alan Tudge, and Stuart Robert. In the greatest betrayal ever enacted on the Australian people by government vulnerable people killed themselves in despair and many thousands later sued the federal government in a settled class action costing tax payers $1.8 billion. Incredibly, no one has been prosecuted for this illegal and immoral travesty some 7 years later. White collar crime attracts get out of gaol free cards downunder in stark contrast to blue collar unsubstantiated accusation levelled at the CMFEU for instance. Bureaucrats and politicians look out for each other if you look at the historical evidence. Think about all those Royal Commissions into banking, aged care and disability – nobody ever pays the price for the rorting and deaths ultimately caused.
The Economic Carve Up In Oz
OK, so who is getting the biggest slices of the pie in OZ? The top 10% are stashing away over 90% of the wealth growth in Australia over the last decade and a half. John Howard, the PM from the 1990’s accelerated this shift via the economic policies his government brought in. Capital gains tax (CGT), negative gearing (NG), and the emphasis on investors over workers since the Howard era. CGT and NG have turbo charged the property market in Australia making it now unaffordable for most younger Aussies to get into the market without the bank of mum and dad. In concert with this, Australia has some of the weakest money laundering laws in the developed world, which sees overseas investors of dubious provenance pouring money into top end residential property in Australian cities. Despots, organised criminals, and the like can stash funds downunder and watch them appreciate. This pushes up property prices and makes homes more unaffordable for Aussie first home buyers and the rest of us.
“Wealth inequality: Nearly half of all wealth is held by the top 10% of households, worth an average $5.2 million each. They hold 15 times the wealth of the lowest 60% ($343,000 per household). Over half of the wealth (53%) of older households was owned by one-sixth of older people. They had an average wealth of $5.6 million, comprise 4% of all households but hold 18% of all wealth. “
The Gas Industry Pays Little Or No Tax
Australia is a low tax paying country for multinational corporations, especially those mining LPG gas and selling our resource around the world. Indeed, half of them don’t even pay royalties on the gas they extract from Australia. WTF? How can this be true? Our politicians, our resource ministers are so inept and/or corrupt, that they agree to deals which see Australia missing out on the kind of tax revenue nations like Qatar and Norway derive from their mining sector. These industries do not employ a whole lot of Australians either, so that is no excuse. We are a soft touch for these foreign owned gas companies and our governments let us down. These facts are hidden and PR campaigns distract ignorant Aussies from the real state of affairs. Australians wrongly believe that mining is the economic backbone of the Oz economy but again this is not true. School teachers collectively pay more tax than BHP. The gas companies manage to not pay company tax in Australia, thanks to their clever accountants. Nor do they pay the Petroleum Resource Rent tax. They make billion dollar profits and don’t pay tax! Why is that? Write to the Prime Minister and ask him why. Write to your local MP and ask her or him. Why are we being ripped off by the gas sector? These companies donate money to both the two main political parties in Australia.
Our Democratic Politicians Are Weak
Australia is a wealthy nation raising little tax revenue. When we say that we cannot afford to pay welfare rates above the poverty line. When our governments say this, we need to ask why they fail to raise the required tax revenue from sectors like the gas industry, the mining industry, the fossil fuel industry. Why are Canada and New Zealand capable of raising much more tax revenue than Australia? The OECD report tells us that we are a low taxing country for the multinational corporations doing business here. Is this because we are stupid or historically have had low self-esteem? Or is it basic corruption because many of our resource ministers end up working for these foreign owned companies on highly paid packages following their departure from public office. This stuff has been going for ages and apathetic Aussies seem to just suck it up. Are our politicians gutless and too afraid to rock the boat? Yes, I think that this plays into the equation as well. The business councils representing these multinational corporations have deep pockets to purchase advertorial and editorial to attack governments afraid of push back at the polls. Democracy is weak in the face of oligarchic self-interest. Our newspapers and networks are controlled by Rupert Murdoch, a right wing media proprietor who sells his soul for greenbacks every day. Corporate media like Nine Fairfax and Seven West run the narratives paid for by their biggest advertisers. The only objective media organisation in Australia is the ABC and this has been cowed by conservative forces over recent years to its detriment.
Economic Choices Made By Governments
Budgets of governments are lists of what these particular governments value. What they spend money on are as much political decisions as economic decisions. The failure to raise enough revenue has been a result of neoliberalism running its small government narrative. Lowering company tax rates sees less tax revenue being raised. This has been pushed by business groups as an economic panacea promising the trickledown effect. This has never been realised anywhere but they go on promoting this just the same. The extra money goes into the pockets of investors and CEOs. Teams of accountants at multinationals ensure that these giants pay less and less tax. The evidence is there for all to see in government revenue records over the last couple of decades. Australian governments have overwhelmingly listened to these business councils to the detriment of ordinary working Australians. We have one of the worst poverty rates for over 50 YO’s among advanced OECD countries. At the same time, we are one of the wealthiest nations globally but the wealth has not been shared. Instead of lifting up all of us, we have been misled onto a regressive path where a smaller group of winners take the lion’s share and the rest of us get bugger all. This is the American way, where a wealthy superpower contains a select group of multibillionaires whilst tens of millions of citizens live in extreme poverty. At the same time, the wealthy class run a PR campaign blaming the poor for their own poverty, despite locking them out of economic opportunities via exclusion from elite colleges, universal healthcare, and decent basic wages. America offers no leg up for those from the wrong side of the tracks but plenty for the sons and daughters of the wealthy. They then run this BS narrative about merit and self-made men. It is a sham, a scam, a long running con perpetuated upon the country. America is a republic of elites looking out for their own interests at the expense of workers, immigrants, and other marginalised denizens. The Hollywood factory has always promoted the myth of American opportunity for all. Have you noticed how often in American movies groups of ordinary Americans gather around and cheer the hero of the movie. This BS is thick on the ground in the USA.
Corporations employ communications firms to promote the stories they want to tell the world. They spend millions on advertising, PR and marketing. In addition, these huge companies employ lobbyists to sweeten their relationships with legislators. Democratic governments are beleaguered by the sustained requests of these corporations. Of course, large campaign donations are factored into the equation by these companies and business groups. What hope do ordinary voters and citizens have up against this well-funded machinery? Whose voice is going to be effectively heard in the halls of power? Not yours or mine but the much louder corporate voices.
Australia is not dependent upon multinational mining corporations for its wealth. This is a furphy, a misnomer, deliberately purported by the communication specialists employed by these industry groups and companies.
The figures do not add up for miners, as school teachers collectively pay more tax than BHP. Governments dependent upon the goodwill of its voters are loath to upset organisations with deep pockets and influence. This is why we the people go on taking it up the arse economically whilst wealthy interests feather their nests at our expense. We lack the intention, whereas a senior mining executive or his lobbyist are hell bent on achieving their aims from government. They get to sit down with ministers, we do not. Their job security is dependent upon getting what the company wants from government. We are focused on other stuff in our lives and let this go on screwing us from afar. However, we the people need to wake up to the truth of the matter.
“Taxes and royalties paid by the mining industry make up just 5 cents in every dollar of state and federal government revenue in Australia.
95% of Australia’s public services are paid for by other industries.
Mining is also heavily subsidised in Australia, receiving the vast bulk of the $11 billion fuel tax credit scheme.
“Relative to its size, the mining industry pays nowhere near enough tax in Australia and, perhaps unsurprisingly, they are keen for that to remain the case,” said Rod Campbell, Research Director at The Australia Institute.”
- (https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/analysis-95-of-government-revenue-not-from-mining-industry/)
Whilst we, the Australian people, allow our governments to go on subsidising the mining sector and not taxing it adequately, we will continue to deprive our own vulnerable citizens, the elderly and unemployed, from economic assistance and watch them being driven into poverty. It is wrong that we are a wealthy nation but continue to push older Australians into poverty. Simultaneously, young Australians are being locked out of the property market and being hit by a prolonged cost of living crisis fuelled by corporate profit gouging. More crime and civil insurrection is on the cards for countries that economically support growing inequality.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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