House debates
Monday, 15 March 2021
Motions
Taxation
4:47 pm
Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I move:
That this House:
(1) notes that:
(a) during the pandemic the wealth of Australia's billionaires grew by 25 per cent;
(b) the Prime Minister's 2020 Budget contained $99 billion a year in subsidies to big corporations and the very wealthy; and
(c) one in three big corporations in Australia pays no tax; and
(2) calls on the Government to ensure the big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of tax.
Big corporations and billionaires in this country have too much power. That is corrupting democracy. And they are also not paying their fair share of tax. One in three big corporations in this country pays no tax at all. During the pandemic, while everyone else was doing it tough, billionaires grew their wealth by an eye-watering 25 per cent in this country and, because they are not paying their fair share, everyone else is left to pick up the tab. That's the reason everyone has to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars to send their child to a public school or why the cost of going to see a doctor and the out-of-pocket expenses keep going up and up. How is this system allowed to continue? How is it that the big corporations and billionaires are allowed to have so much power? They make donations to the Liberal and Labor parties. As a result, the rules get written in their favour, and we don't take the action we need to tackle the long-term problems in this country. That is why politics is working for the big corporations and billionaires but is not working for everyday people.
I want to tell you a tale of three private jets. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg billed taxpayers $5,000 to take the Prime Minister's private jet to Sydney for Lachlan Murdoch's 2018 Christmas party. Matthias Cormann has flown on mining and gas magnate Nev Power's personal jets a few times and then Nev Power got appointed to lead the gas-fired COVID recovery. Gina Rinehart flew Barnaby Joyce and other coalition MPs on her private jet to a lavish wedding in India to meet her business partners. These three stories about private jets show us why Australia is not going to do the sensible thing and recover from the pandemic by tackling the long-term problems our country faces by investing in job-creating, nation-building, planet-saving projects. Instead these billionaires and big companies make super profits, amplifying the climate crisis. They ship the bulk of their profits offshore, tax-free, and they keep the major parties on a drip-feed of donations, so the government has outsourced the recovery instead of having a government led investment in nation-building, planet-saving, job-creating projects. The government has just tipped well over $100 billion a year into corporate welfare. Instead of creating jobs directly, we've handed billions of dollars to big corporations and billionaires and crossed our fingers that it will all work out okay. JobMaker hiring credits and JobKeeper for companies that are already paying dividends, instant write-offs for big corporations and fuel tax credits for coal and gas companies—the list of corporate subsidies goes on and on.
A division having been called in the House of Representatives—
Sitting suspended from 16:50 to 16 : 54
Before the suspension I about to say that two million people either have no job or do not enough work—and it's going to get worse in a couple of weeks time when JobKeeper is cut—and workers who do have a job aren't expecting a pay rise for years. But, while everyone else suffers, the billionaires and big corporations are making out like bandits.
The wealth of billionaires grew an eye-watering 25 per cent during the pandemic—from $267 billion to a record high $357 billion during the pandemic. There were also 48 more billionaires in 2020 than there were just three years earlier—just shy of a doubling of billionaires in the last three years. So, not only is their wealth growing rapidly but, like cane toads, they are multiplying out of control as well. Gina Rinehart doubled her wealth, to $29 billion during the pandemic. Twiggy and Clive jointly increased their wealth by 141 per cent during the pandemic, while everyday people suffered lost jobs or pay cuts at worst or no pay rise at best. Kerry Stokes, through Sevenwest took millions in JobKeeper, made millions in profit and cut the pay of his staff by 20 per cent and just put in an order for another private jet.
While we were locked down the billionaires got rich off us. While we try to stop the climate crisis, the billionaires make it worse. While we pay tax, the billionaires and the big corporations get handouts. Meanwhile, one in three big corporations pays no tax, including many that are making the climate crisis worse, with the Australian Tax Office singling out the oil and gas industry as—and I quote the ATO here—'systemic non-payers of tax'. While everyone else deals with rising public school fees and the high cost of going to the dentist, big corporations pay not tax and send their profits offshore. And, not only are they tax dodgers; now the government wants to give them extra public funds as well. Well, the next election is closer than you think. The Greens could be in balance of power. Because we don't take donations from the billionaires and big corporations, we will make them pay their fair share.
Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Is the motion seconded?
Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
4:56 pm
Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
It's wonderful to speak on this motion put by the Marxist member for Melbourne. I think he is the leader of the Greens at the moment but I'm not quite sure. It depends on what is happening at different times of the day, but let's go with that.
Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I remind the honourable member to address the member for Melbourne appropriately.
Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
As far as I am aware I have addressed him
Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I think you just used an epithet to describe him.
Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Marxist member for Melbourne? He has a PhD in Marxist sociology, if I understand correctly. So I shall continue to call him as such. As I said it is wonderful to speak on the Marxist member for Melbourne's motion, because the coalition agrees that the billionaires and multinational corporations should pay tax. In fact, we've taken a lot of measures to make sure that multinational corporations do pay tax. But, of course, they don't want to talk about them. They want to deceive and mislead the Australian people into believing that they're the great crusaders, that they are the ones standing up for the Australian people—Don Quixote style—when in fact it is just an imaginary allegation that they are making.
At every point this government, the Morrison government, has been standing by Australians and expecting multinationals to pay their tax as part of the Australian tax landscape. Since 1 July 2016—
Mr Gosling interjecting—
I know the Australian Taxation Office data is inconvenient for the member for Solomon but it's kind of important. The actual hard data exposes the myths which are at the heart of the position put forward by the Marxist member for Melbourne. But when has truth been let get in the way of the Marxist ideology? Truth is a fungible thing.
Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Goldstein will address the member for Melbourne appropriately.
Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Melbourne?
Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
He has a PhD in Marxist sociology.
Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
He is not described in anything I have seen as the Marxist member; he is the member for Melbourne.
Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
As I am the member for Goldstein.
Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Regardless, the facts don't stand up for the member. The reality is that ATO data has shown that there has been $20.6 billion in tax liabilities against large public groups, multinational corporations, wealth individuals and associated groups since 1 July 2016—and that was to 31 December 2020. So, despite the allegations and the Don Quixote style claims of there not being any taxes paid, the evidence simply does not stack up. Of this, $13 billion in liabilities was raised from multinationals and large companies alone.
Let's not misunderstand: the member is pandering to prejudices that he thinks exist within the Australian community. He does so because he thinks it is strategically smart play for the Greens and their Marxist ideology, because they think that, if they divide the community against Australians, somehow it will not be a problem. Did he speak on the motion this morning in parliament when we merely asked for one of largest investment funds in Australia to give details about the $36 million bonuses they have been paying to fund managers? No. He was silent and nowhere to be seen. Of course, had it been someone who wasn't bankrolling either the Australian Labor Party or the Greens, he might have somehow had an issue, but the reality is that, when it came to the test of standing up and speaking in parliament against Australians' retirement savings being given to wealthy fund managers, he resiles. Deputy Speaker, you are sitting there—
Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Deputy Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The member made an insinuation that someone was bankrolling me and my party, which is completely untrue. I ask him to withdraw. There is absolutely no basis for that. If he has any evidence, he can put it. I ask him to withdraw.
Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Is this to the point of order?
Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Because you know it's not true.
Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Order! The member for Melbourne will come to order. The member for Goldstein.
Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Marxist member for Melbourne has promoted mistruths in his speech today because he is not interested in the future of this country and seeks to divide Australians against those who want to invest in this country and contribute to creating jobs and raising revenue. If the Marxist member for Melbourne were prepared to get up and call out $36 million made to single fund managers, he might have credibility. Instead, he sat there in silence and will continue to sit there in silence. The whole ecosystem of the Left political spectrum is entirely dependent on putting the interests of wealthy fund managers and wealthy investment firms against the interests of young Australians who want to buy their own homes. And this is where they fail Australians at every single point. (Time expired)
5:02 pm
Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
At the outset, I thank the member for Solomon for agreeing to trade places in this debate so I can perform my House chamber duty. It is a pleasure to follow the member for Goldstein, who was attacked over the weekend by his former leader, Malcolm Turnbull, who described the member for Goldstein's campaign for young Australians to be poorer in retirement so they can overheat the housing market as 'the craziest idea I've heard'. He went on to say:
Isn’t it … somewhat patronising for people who benefit from 15.4 per cent super to say that working people should settle for 9.5 ...
This motion goes to the weakness of the Australian economy and the rise in inequality. The member for Melbourne refers to an increase in the wealth of Australia's billionaires by 25 per cent. It turns out, member for Melbourne, that the problem is worse than that. Bloomberg has a billionaire tracker which provides a daily update of the aggregate wealth of billionaires across different countries. I checked it on the way to the chamber. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, in the 12 months to 14 March 2021, the wealth of Australia's billionaires rose 76.8 per cent.
Australia's billionaires have had a terrific pandemic. At least a dozen of them have benefited from the government's JobKeeper program. As a result of holding significant stakes in firms that received JobKeeper, they increased their profit and then paid out dividends. Among them are Gerry Harvey and Solomon Lew. In the case of Gerry Harvey, he doesn't think he should pay back the $3.6 million that his head office received, because it's 'a tiny amount'. This 'tiny amount' is larger than the amount that most Australians will earn in a lifetime. That's how out of touch Gerry Harvey is. He then went on to say that he will pay more than that amount of money in increased tax. I have news for Gerry Harvey and other highly profitable JobKeeper recipients who are refusing to repay the taxpayer: that's how the corporate tax system works. When you make a bigger profit, you pay more tax. But that doesn't mean you get to keep corporate welfare that you never needed.
We have seen across Australia a raft of firms receiving JobKeeper that they didn't need. Shoe seller Accent received $45 million in JobKeeper, paid its CEO a $1.3 million bonus and paid $65 million in dividends—with $11 million going to Brett Blundy, an Australian billionaire who's recently taken up residence in Monaco. The Accent Group has seen a 60 per cent increase in profits on pre-COVID levels. K2 Asset Management has doubled its profits yet got half a million dollars in JobKeeper.
You can only imagine what Prime Minister Morrison would be saying if a welfare recipient had received $500,000 they didn't need. The Prime Minister, who designed and oversaw robodebt, would be chasing after that welfare recipient and demanding the money back. After all, that's what the government did demanding money back, through an illegal scheme, from people who didn't owe the government anything. Yet when it comes to large firms receiving JobKeeper, the government has refused to ask for the money back. There are some firms that have done the right thing. Adelaide Brighton Cement is one of those who've paid back JobKeeper it didn't need. But too many firms have failed to do the right thing. I've urged the Auditor-General to look into the problems, and he's now said he'll launch an inquiry, but we need corporate Australia to step up and do the right thing. We need corporate Australia to live up to their own corporate social responsibility statements.
When the Prime Minister is challenged on this, he uses the oldest cliche in the right-wing handbook. He calls it 'the politics of envy'. Prime Minister, this isn't about envy. This is about fairness. This is about the fact that at the end of this month you're going to cut off Cairns tourism businesses that desperately need JobKeeper from that lifeline. Jeff Borland says up to 250,000 jobs could go. If the government took a firmer line with firms getting JobKeeper who don't need it, then firms that do need it could get the benefit when they need it.
5:07 pm
Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The past 12 months have been one of the toughest years in living memory for very many Australians. It's been the worst recession we've faced in many decades and since the JobKeeper subsidy was introduced, a year ago, almost four million workers employed by more than one million businesses have received more than $90 billion in payments. That's been very necessary, for the most part. As the member for Fenner pointed out, it hasn't been necessary for all of those businesses, but, for the most part, it kept workers connected to their employers and kept businesses afloat.
If at the end of this month the Prime Minister decides to turn off that JobKeeper, businesses that are exposed in the tourism industry are going to find it very difficult indeed. JobKeeper needs to be extended in a targeted way to make sure that we keep businesses afloat, to get us through the vaccine rollout and, in the case of tourism businesses in my electorate in Darwin, get us into the dry season. That's what needs to be done, and you could fund it by making some of those businesses that the member for Fenner just mentioned give back the JobKeeper that they just did not need.
We knew on this side that we would need to support businesses and workers, and that's why we pushed those opposite, the federal government, to make JobKeeper happen and make it available to Australians.
Sitting suspended from 17:09 to 17:11
Not all Australians are equal, and we know that from those opposite in the way that they hand out billions in subsidies to big corporations and the very wealthy. About $100 billion a year in this government's October budget went to subsidies for the big corporations and the very wealthy. We know that, during the pandemic, as the motion from the member for Melbourne notes, the wealth of Australia's billionaires grew by up to 50 per cent. That actually makes me quite ill. Whilst many were going and dipping into their super, their retirement savings, to keep their businesses afloat and keep their families going, billionaires grew their wealth by up to 50 per cent.
It's true, as the member for Fenner mentioned, that many, many billionaires in this country became exponentially more wealthy. It's fair to say that the corporations they were running, or that they own significant amounts of, did not need that level of support that was provided by JobKeeper, especially considering that one-third of Australia's biggest corporations pay no tax. None. That is extraordinary and evidence that under those opposite, the coalition federal government, not all Australians are treated equally. If you're very wealthy, if you happen to be a billionaire, you'll do pretty well. They won't make you pay back JobKeeper, if you've been using that assistance from the Australian taxpayer to pay your dividends and executive bonuses. They're not interested in reaping back some of that money, which would keep some businesses afloat, come the end of this month, when small businesses in Australia will go to the wall and when Australians will lose their jobs. Will the funding that could be taken back from those companies that made huge profits and didn't need JobKeeper? That funding could literally keep heaps of small businesses around this country afloat. But those opposite—the coalition federal government; the Morrison government—aren't interested in doing that. They would rather just keep looking after their billionaire mates. That is not politics of envy; that is a fact. They are going to throw small business under a bus, because they refuse to make those big corporations pay any tax at all and refuse to take back the JobKeeper payments that some of these companies don't need in order to help those small businesses that do. I think it's a national shame. As the member for Fenner also mentioned, they hounded people in my electorate, in all honourable members' electorates, under the robodebt scheme for owing money when they really didn't owe money. The people who owe money are these companies that didn't need the JobKeeper and they need to pay it back. (Time expired)
Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.