The Australian Greens are proposing new taxes on the wealthy aimed at correcting inequality under their new “Fight for the Future” campaign. The laws would see Australia’s billionaires receive a 6% wealth tax that would be imposed on 90% of their original wealth. This measure would not only help to fund several public initiatives but would also help stem the transfer of assets offshore.
According to the Parliamentary Budget Office, such a wealth tax could potentially raise over $40 billion over the next decade. This figure is however subject to a high degree of uncertainty as those targeted are likely to seek ways to avoid it. The Greens are also proposing a super profit tax on corporations that are making a turnover of over $100 million a year.
Chuck Collins, a U.S. author supports the view that the very wealthy work hard to dodge taxes. A one-time Oscar Meyer heir and the director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, Collins points to what he calls the ‘wealth defense industry’. The group of attorneys, accountants, and other professionals that are devoted to helping their wealthy clients protect their wealth while avoiding taxes.
Collins however noted that the wealthy did not need to move their assets offshore. He ranked the U.S, itself as one of the top tax havens. He identified art-storage facilities and high-end real estate as some of the ways the wealthy could circumvent tax measures.
If the Greens are successful in taxing the 122 billionaires in Australia as per their policy proposals, they are hoping to channel these funds toward public needs such as the funding of dental and mental health care through Medicare. Greens leader, Adam Bandt, also aims to see the money fund fee-free public schools and universities, and jobs and income guarantees.
These proposals are expected to help the party surge past Labor, who they claim have abandoned their 2019 policies that were to aid in the redistribution of wealth. The Greens are hoping to bring about a minority Labor government and gain balance of power in both houses.
One of the key reasons this wealth tax has taken centre stage is the fact that Australia’s billionaires have managed to grow their wealth by a third during this pandemic. This represents a $68 billion growth, bringing their cumulative wealth to $417 billion.
It would see billionaires like Clive Palmer, whose wealth has almost doubled to $10 billion over the duration of the pandemic, contribute an estimated $586 million in taxes. All this while thousands of Australians have lost jobs and the country sunk into a recession. Bandt said tackling the wealth and power of billionaires and big corporations would help in fighting inequality and the climate crisis.