2021-03-28
The Greens will today announce key election policies, including a ‘billionaires tax’ to help fund genuinely free public schools, dental into Medicare and a job for everyone who wants one.
With the party considering an election in November of this year still a possibility and a minority parliament the most likely outcome, Mr Bandt will push for a tax on billionaires & corporate super profits as part of dealings with a future shared power government.
Leader Adam Bandt, Greens Deputy Leader and Senator for Queensland Larissa Waters and local Greens candidate Max Chandler-Mather will speak with voters in Griffith today about how the policies will reduce inequality and improve their lives.
The policy is part of the Greens’ ‘Fight for the Future’ plan being launched today, a vision statement for the next decade that outlines 15 key policies the Greens will take to the upcoming election, including:
- A treaty with First Nations people
- A billionaire's tax and a corporate super profit tax
- A Jobs and Income guarantee
- Bringing dental and mental health into Medicare
- Restoring fee free education to public schools, universities and TAFE
- A goal of 700% renewable energy, creating a jobs bonanza in renewables exports
The Greens will aim to win 3 new Senate seats and will target up to nine Liberal and Labor lower house seats at the next election, including Griffith, with success in any seat strengthening the Greens’ balance of power position and the likelihood of a minority government after the next election.
The Greens will seek to elevate economic issues as part of their campaign to win lower house seats, attributing their continued success in Melbourne and recently in the state seat of South Brisbane (which sits within Griffith) in large part to providing a clear progressive alternative on issues like schools, healthcare and jobs.
A 6% annual wealth tax on billionaires will help fund genuinely fee-free public schools, free dental care by getting dental into Medicare and a ‘jobs and income guarantee’, which will lift the Jobseeker rate above the poverty line to $80 a day and fund government employment programs.
With two million people without jobs or enough work, the jobs and income guarantee will ensure that everyone who wants a secure and well paid job will get one working on exciting, planet-saving, nation-building programs in industries that will tackle the climate emergency and build a more creative, inclusive and caring society.
The Parliamentary Budget Office has concluded that the billionaire’s tax will raise over $40b in the next ten years, a figure that could be higher if billionaires could be pursued for the full entrant of their wealth.
Quotes attributable to Adam Bandt MP, Leader of the Australian Greens:
“The next election will be closer than people think. At the last election, Australia was only 828 votes away from a minority Parliament. At the next election, people can kick the Liberals out and put the Greens in balance of power in both Houses of Parliament, where we will push the next government to go further and faster on tackling inequality and the climate crisis.
“In balance of power, the Greens will make billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share of tax to help put dental into Medicare, get rid of public school fees and give a decent job to everyone who wants one on planet-saving, nation-building projects.
“The Liberals are turbocharging inequality and the Labor Party’s national conference is sounding the retreat on big reforms.
“Billionaires and the big corporations have been buying influence over the Liberal and Labor parties with political donations, which is how they avoid paying tax, keep wages low, send their profits offshore and keep on polluting.
“While everyone else has been doing it tough during the pandemic, the billionaires have been making out like bandits.
“If we want to fight inequality and the climate crisis, we need to tackle the wealth and power of the billionaires and the big corporations and make them pay their fair share."
Quotes attributable to Senator Nick McKim, Greens Economic Justice spokesperson:
“Billionaires massively increased their wealth during a pandemic, while hundreds of thousands of people lost their job or had their hours slashed at work.
“They have amassed truly obscene amounts of wealth, often through companies that have plundered our natural environment and made the climate emergency worse.
“The very least they can do is start paying their fair share of tax.”