Question time may have ended but – on the other side of the same building – the Revenue Summit rolls on.
We are now hearing from a panel about how inequality and wealth is entrenched and growing, but not inevitable
“We need to reduce inequality to have a vibrant society,” said Dr Richard Denniss, co-CEO of The Australia Institute.
As Dr Denniss has said before, taxing things we don’t like to subsidise things we do like and need is economics 101.
Dr Cassandra Goldie, CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service, presented some statistics that show how wide the gap is.
“Both on income and on wealth, there has been siginficant acceleration on inequality,” Dr Goldie said.
“We are going in the wrong direction if you care about greater equality”.
She also pointed out how Australia is a low taxing nation by OECD standards, and a low spending nation by those same standards.
It is a big reason why so many people in what is a rich country are living in poverty.
Kasy Chambers, Executive Director of Anglicare is arguing the case for investing increased revenue in people, particularly those who need it most, with initiatives like better employment programs.
Dr Mark Zirnsak, Secretariat at the Tax Justice Network Australia, says a fairer tax system is a no-brainer.
He says it would ensure governments have revenue to provide services like health care clinics, schools, aged care, mental health services and law enforcement.
1 Comment
Inequality is a critical issue. Michael Marmot was writing about the social determinants of health decades ago and identified that the greater the gap in wealth the unhealthier the population. It also leads to multiple other dysfunctional aspects of society including increased crime rate, reduced engagement and poorer happiness outcomes. Australia has so much wealth and has squandered this for years. We need to address many issues. Making constructive change to reduce the yawning and growing gap in inequality is multi-faceted. However, taxation policy would be a good place to start and to remove the massive transfer of public funds to individuals and businesses through investment benefits and rebates, subsidies and direct handouts.