2021-07-27
New costings by the Parliamentary Budget Office reveal the extreme inequality of stage 3 tax cuts, which give as much to the top 1% of income earners as the bottom 60%.
The cuts have been calculated at costing the budget bottom line a staggering $184.2 billion over ten years, enough to fund putting dental into Medicare, start building high speed rail from Brisbane to Melbourne and the construction of 1 million affordable homes.
Key points from the PBO costing:
- 75% of the money goes to the top 20% of income earners.
- Almost half (45%) of the money goes to the people earning over $180,000 (currently the highest tax bracket), which, based on current tax statistics, are presently the top 3.5% of income earners.
- The top 1% get almost twice as much ($1.3b/8%) money as the entire bottom 60% combined ($700m/4%) (in 2024-25).
Over the decade, the richest 1% get:
- About the same as the entire bottom 60% ($11.8b/6.4% v $12.7b/6.9%);
- 15 times more than the entire bottom 40% of the population (who will earn between $40k and $60k a year over the decade) will get from these tax cuts.
Quotes attributable to Greens Leader Adam Bandt:
“This is the end of progressive taxation in Australia. With Labor backing the Liberals’ trickle-down nightmare, Gough Whitlam must be rolling in his grave.
“Tax cuts lead to spending cuts. These tax cuts for the 1% will rip a hole in the Budget and turbocharge inequality in Australia.
“By backing the Liberals, Labor has abandoned its values.
“We need dental into Medicare, not tax cuts for billionaires.
“The choice at the next election is now clear. The Greens want billionaires to pay more tax, but Liberal and Labor want to give billionaires a tax cut.
“The next election is on a knife edge, and the Greens will campaign hard to kick Morrison out, get into balance of power and push the next government to ditch these unfair tax cuts.”