Ever wondered what billionaire property investors really think of working people? 

BY ADAM BANDT 
Leaders of the Australian Greens 

Ever wondered what billionaire property investors really think of working people? 

Well last week we found out. 

Billionaire property investor, Tim Gurner, sat on stage at the Australian Financial Review Conference and told the audience that we need to see an increase in unemployment, because since the pandemic, working people had become “too arrogant”. 

“They have been paid a lot to do not much”, he said.  

“We need to see pain in the economy. We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around. 

Gurner’s comments are extremely offensive. This is a guy who is pushing poor and middle income people out of their neighbourhoods so he can put up million dollar “luxury apartments”, so he can make massive profits.  

His comments are exactly why working people need to join a union, so they can protect their rights to a decent wage for the work they do and to get a fair deal at work. 

And, his comments show why we need to build a lot more public housing that people can afford to live in, because this guy sure as hell isn’t going to. 

It’s people like this who see other people’s homes only as investments, ignoring that they provide a basic human need. 

But Gurner’s comments of what the economy apparently needed - a massive increase in unemployment - which were met with horror and disgust, are also quite revealing because  they’re actually the same policy as the Reserve Bank and the Labor Party. 

Right now, we’re in a cost of living crisis. We’ve seen corporations like Coles and Woolworths record massive profits, and a massive increase in rents, all of which are driving inflation. 

Labor has left it up to the Reserve Bank to tackle inflation, which is why they’re raising interest rates. And rather than trying to do something about making billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share of tax and stop profiteering, Labor’s Budget also factors in a rise in unemployment, because together with the RBA they see this as the better way of tackling inflation. 

So under the establishment’s plan, not only should working people have to pay more for food, rent, and on their mortgages, but that they should also lose their jobs. 

The problem with Gurner was that he said the quiet bit out loud. He said what the Reserve Bank, the Labor Party the Liberals and everyone else has been thinking - that big corporations and billionaires can make as much as they like, but working people will have to pay the price of tackling inflation. 

Working people are not arrogant. Inequality is on steroids in this country. Real wages are going backwards, and too many people are in insecure work. 

So, I am not sure where Mr Gurner is looking, but we can already see a lot of pain in the economy. 

But instead of making billionaires and big corporations pay more tax to fund services to address the cost of living crisis, like getting dental into Medicare, Labor’s plan is to give Mr Gurner a $9,000 a year tax cut though the stage three tax cuts.

The Greens will keep fighting to stop tax cuts to politicians and billionaires and instead make sure that in a wealthy country like ours, people get what they need to live a better life.