Since their election in 2013, the Liberal Party of Australia has abolished two taxes:
1. The Mineral Resource Rent Tax, colloquially known as the Mining tax. This was a Georgist tax, based on the principle that miners should pay for the value of the non-renewable resources that they are taking. Miners don't produce those resources; they merely add value by extracting and processing them into commodities that can be used by manufacturers. By axing this tax, the Liberal Party proved that they had been bought by the mining giants who poured millions into propaganda before the 2013 federal election.
2. The Carbon Tax. This was the three-year fixed price on carbon that would precede an Emissions Trading Scheme, and was widely recognised as an effective, efficient price signal to reduce carbon emissions. Not only did this increase tax revenue and help save our habitat, but it did so without shifting the tax burden onto low-icome earners. The Coalition axed this, and for good measure they also handcuffed the clean-energy finance corporation, slowing down the growth of the solar and wind power industries and the cheap power they produce. In its place, they introduced Direct Action, an auction-based program that uses tax revenue to pay companies for proposed emissions-reduction measures.
In 2016 the Liberal/National Coalition government is faced with inadequate revenue. Big Fucking surprise there. They have several options at their disposal:
1. Reintroduce mineral resources rents.
2. Reintroduce the emissions trading scheme.
3. Abolish superannuation tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy.
4. Abolish negative gearing.
5. Close tax loopholes (oops I mean concessions) that allow corporations to pay jack-all in taxes.
6. Change to a land-value tax.
7. Abolish emissions reduction subsidies paid to polluters.
8. Abolish fuel subsidies paid to mining corporations.
9. Abolish the extraordinarily expensive offshore detention program for boat people and switch to the far-cheaper alternative of onshore processing.
Instead, they decided to consider a much worse option: increase the GST from 10% to 15% and expand it to include, health, education and fresh food, then use the increased revenues to fund a 26% reduction in Company Tax and Income Tax.
(Who needs milk and veggies anyway?)
In essence, the Liberal Party wants to shift the tax burden away from companies and the wealthy and onto low-income earners, who will pay a huge chunk of their income as GST. This will produce a 1.9% increase in GDP while increasing the growth of income inequality in Australia.
The government has shelved the GST increase (for now) after a hugely-negative public reaction, but it's amazing that the proposal even got as far as it did.
What the fuck were they thinking?
That's not the only unbelievably stupid idea that the Liberal Party has had in recent times. They also want to scrap Australia's WORLD CLASS single-payer healthcare system and switch to a subsidised private system. A bit like Obamacare actually, and just like Obamacare, grossly inferior to single-payer healthcare.
Plus, they cancelled a national optic fibre broadband network and opted for the more expensive option of a fibre/copper hybrid network that will be grossly obsolete before it is finished. What in the actual fuck.
This is what you get when you elect a party that is based on a neoliberal philosophy of austerity, privatisation, and deregulation: insane, ideologically-driven economic policy that often produces the opposite result of what is promised.
1. The Mineral Resource Rent Tax, colloquially known as the Mining tax. This was a Georgist tax, based on the principle that miners should pay for the value of the non-renewable resources that they are taking. Miners don't produce those resources; they merely add value by extracting and processing them into commodities that can be used by manufacturers. By axing this tax, the Liberal Party proved that they had been bought by the mining giants who poured millions into propaganda before the 2013 federal election.
2. The Carbon Tax. This was the three-year fixed price on carbon that would precede an Emissions Trading Scheme, and was widely recognised as an effective, efficient price signal to reduce carbon emissions. Not only did this increase tax revenue and help save our habitat, but it did so without shifting the tax burden onto low-icome earners. The Coalition axed this, and for good measure they also handcuffed the clean-energy finance corporation, slowing down the growth of the solar and wind power industries and the cheap power they produce. In its place, they introduced Direct Action, an auction-based program that uses tax revenue to pay companies for proposed emissions-reduction measures.
In 2016 the Liberal/National Coalition government is faced with inadequate revenue. Big Fucking surprise there. They have several options at their disposal:
1. Reintroduce mineral resources rents.
2. Reintroduce the emissions trading scheme.
3. Abolish superannuation tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy.
4. Abolish negative gearing.
5. Close tax loopholes (oops I mean concessions) that allow corporations to pay jack-all in taxes.
6. Change to a land-value tax.
7. Abolish emissions reduction subsidies paid to polluters.
8. Abolish fuel subsidies paid to mining corporations.
9. Abolish the extraordinarily expensive offshore detention program for boat people and switch to the far-cheaper alternative of onshore processing.
Instead, they decided to consider a much worse option: increase the GST from 10% to 15% and expand it to include, health, education and fresh food, then use the increased revenues to fund a 26% reduction in Company Tax and Income Tax.
(Who needs milk and veggies anyway?)
In essence, the Liberal Party wants to shift the tax burden away from companies and the wealthy and onto low-income earners, who will pay a huge chunk of their income as GST. This will produce a 1.9% increase in GDP while increasing the growth of income inequality in Australia.
The government has shelved the GST increase (for now) after a hugely-negative public reaction, but it's amazing that the proposal even got as far as it did.
What the fuck were they thinking?
That's not the only unbelievably stupid idea that the Liberal Party has had in recent times. They also want to scrap Australia's WORLD CLASS single-payer healthcare system and switch to a subsidised private system. A bit like Obamacare actually, and just like Obamacare, grossly inferior to single-payer healthcare.
Plus, they cancelled a national optic fibre broadband network and opted for the more expensive option of a fibre/copper hybrid network that will be grossly obsolete before it is finished. What in the actual fuck.
This is what you get when you elect a party that is based on a neoliberal philosophy of austerity, privatisation, and deregulation: insane, ideologically-driven economic policy that often produces the opposite result of what is promised.
pigsfly