tax big corporations so you can fix your teeth

By Adam Bandt MP, Leader of the Australian Greens 

 

Labor has settled on their new attack line for Peter Dutton. 

According to Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Peter Dutton is too divisive. According to the Treasurer, division is dangerous – and causing divisions should make you unfit to lead the country. 

Peter Dutton certainly is divisive. He’s built a career punching down on some of the most vulnerable people in our society, often on the basis of their race: whether it was immigration, African crime gangs, First Nations people or refugees fleeing wars. 

But the most worrying source of division in our society isn’t people coming from other countries to seek a better life here. It is the division between everyday people and the billionaires and big corporations, something Labor won’t talk about. 

Since Labor came to power in 2022, the cost of food is up by 10.5%, rents have gone up by 31%, and the average mortgage payment has gone up $1,667 a month.

There are now more than 3 million people living in poverty. 

People who were struggling to keep their head above water are going under, pushed down by soaring prices and profiteering, which is leading to billionaires and big corporations making massive profits.

This price gouging and profiteering is why corporate profits are at their highest share of national income ever.

While others struggled to pay the rent, the big four banks made a record $32.5 billion in the 2022-23 financial year.

Oxfam found that, between 2020 to 2023, the wealth of the 47 richest billionaires increased by 70%.

Here, since 2020, the wealth of the three richest people in this country has gone up 50%. 

Meanwhile, 1 in 3 big corporations pays no tax at all.

Inequality of this nature is a key driver of a breakdown in social cohesion. Blaming immigrants and people who are trying to flee wars is a dangerous distraction.

The only way to have a more cohesive society is to make billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share of tax, and use it to provide the things that people need. 

That’s why, this week at the National Press Club, I launched the first two in our series of ‘Robin Hood reforms’ – our election plan to make big corporations pay their fair share of tax and use the money to make everyday peoples' lives better. 

This new Big Corporations Tax would apply to both Australian corporations, and multinational corporations operating in Australia. It applies when they are making excessive profits.

With nearly 2-in-3 coal and gas corporations paying no tax, we’ll also make them start paying their fair share with new taxes on them. 

Over the next decade, our Big Corporations Taxes are expected to raise $514 billion.

It will provide huge amounts of much-needed funding to redirect to everyday people and it will reduce the cost of living, including through the second of our reforms I announced: dental into Medicare. 

When the Greens were in the balance of power in 2010, we provided free dental care for children. As a result, more than 43 million services have been provided to more than three million children.

Now, as we head towards another power-sharing Parliament, the Greens want to finish the job and get dental into Medicare for everyone.

If you have a Medicare card, you should be able to use it at the dentist, just like you do at the doctor. It’s critical that we expand Medicare so it covers everything, for everyone – and that includes your teeth. 

As anyone who’s ever had a toothache knows, dental care isn't optional. It’s ridiculous that this doesn’t already exist. Over 60% of Australians have delayed dental care in the last year, and the most common reason was cost, at 63%. 

That delay seeking treatment impacts people’s lives. Another national survey found almost a quarter avoid certain foods due to dental problems, and a third of people said they felt uncomfortable about their appearance because of their dental health.

Getting dental into Medicare would be a meaningful change that would make a difference to peoples' lives.

It’s far more important that everyone in this country has access to dental care than it is that big corporations are able to make billions of dollars profits they send offshore, tax free. 

The Greens will make the big corporations pay their fair share of tax so you can fix your teeth.