Australia’s tax dilemma: the case for real reform | Richard Denniss National Press Club Address
2024 ж. 30 Қаң.
13 921 Рет қаралды
"Australia is a low tax country. If we were to collect the average amount of tax collected by OECD countries then this year, we would have to collect more than an extra $100 billion. Per year."
On Wednesday, 31 January 2024, Executive Director at the Australia Institute Richard Denniss and Allegra Spender MP addressed the National Press Club for a debate on the Stage 3 tax reforms.
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Thank you Mr Denniss for standing for the people, for speaking the obvious truth. You are a bright light that deserved far more applause during your truly epic speech, and a standing ovation at the end.
The gov collects more money from hecs than gas…. Ooooft
Holy shit, receiving more money from HECS than the gas industry is insane. What a stat.
Nobody is forcing people to use HECS. It's one of the cheapest loans you will ever receive.
@emmett3067 did Richard ever say anything to do with that? No. What he's saying instead is that the government receives more money from students than multi-national gas mega-corporations' tax payments. Whether or not HECS is a good thing is for another conversation
@@ajar1000 Considering the Gas is government property, we deserve more of the revenue, not private companies. And Hecs benefits society.
@@Gumardee_coins_and_banknotes Yep, tax gas companies (and all big businesses in Australia) more.
@@emmett3067agreed. Its a pity most of HECS expenditure seems to have been a waste of money
So much sense by Richard Denniss as always, this is what the public needs to hear because this is what’s best for the Australian people
As a very layperson when it comes to economics Richard has a wonderful way of communicating the facts and solutions to our economic issues. His way of debating his point of view is entertaining to watch, but not as entertaining as watching his deponents faces when he rebuttals their arguments! Thank you for all you're hard work.
No more tax cuts, close the loop holes allowing corporations to pay minimal or no tax at all.
Labor just got $11bn out of oil and gas companies by actually enforcing the laws, previously under the LNP they paid $30, that's 30 dollars not 30 billions of dollars.
This is absolutely legendary, hearing Richard talk straight in a whole room of business lobby goons who have had their years of Murdoch media spotlight and validation has actually given me hope for the trajectory of Australia - considering myself and all of my peers who are trying and struggling to build a life after finishing university can't keep our heads above the water - a genuine Nordic-model inspired social democracy is the way through the slow death of this neoliberal hellscape, and every single Australian will be better off once we start this transition. Thank you for standing up for the powerless in such nihilistic times, myself and all future generations of Australians will be grateful eternally for every little push to hold these parasites to account and take the people power back.
Holy crap, well done, wish you were in politics, good to see a impartial analysis of what is broken in our tax system.
He actually tried for the Greens....... So i wouldnt call him imparttial
@@timlucas4014 Why not?
Richard is the best! He cuts through all the noise. "Tax reform is easy, it's the business lobby groups that are hard." Never a truer word spoken👏
I don't know what sort of reform Richard is asking for, it was not specific enough. Tax on pollution and wealth? What does that mean exactly. He needs to quantify so we can discuss what the potential costs and benefits might be. Taxing of businesses and resources has a negative impact on employment and so income tax revenue - swings and roundabouts.
Tax on pollution = carbon tax. Tax on wealth = reforming superannuation rebates, incentives that make it easier to own 5 investment properties etc. Increasing minerals resource rent tax, petroleum resource rent tax would claw back some money from international minerals, oil & gas conglomerates who are not large employers of Australians anyway.
@@larissafedunik2564 We have tried a carbon tax in the past, and it failed utterly because it raised the price of everything which is NOT what you want in a cost of living crisis. Removing incentive on super would have the effect of wealthy people investing MORE of their money in property, and would defer the problem of self funded retirement (lack of public money for paying pensions) in an society that is ageing. Increasing MRRT and PRRT will have the effect of increasing energy prices which is NOT what you want in a cost of living crisis. It doesn't make the energy companies suffer, because they just lay people off, stop investing locally, and move their business to other countries. In summary, RD is not suggesting anything that is likely to resonate with politicians or voters. He dismisses more realistic reform, like taxing consumption and assets, by increasing the GST and removing the capital gains tax discount.
the Australia institute supports cutting the capital gains discount. The carbon tax was scrapped because Australia is captured by lobbyists like the minerals council, whose talking points you have nicely recapitulated
@@larissafedunik2564 the carbon tax was scrapped because Australians voted in a government which had a mandate to remove it. It is now political poison. The only way we will ever see a carbon tax in Australia is part of an agreement with the UN for a global carbon price.
Wow, human, sane, intact cognitive ability ….they exist in Australia and can talk publicly? Good to know. Amazing!
Yes, Wow! A blast of sanity.
Thanks Richard. Always sensible analysis of economic situations and clearly conveyed with a smile. We need more of you.
For PM. I'D VOTE FOR DENNIS TOMORROW, OUT WITH ALBO.
Richard Dennis for Prime Minister 👏👏👏..first time hearing a person that explains a possible vision for Australia, if only the government gets the tax system right. Media etc make it all sound complicated, this guy explains it with out the political/msm jargon. Shame on our previous and current leaders for not getting in there and changing things for the better for all Australians.
Always have time for the rational and balanced view Richard brings to any subject, that what he says is in ANY way controversial is damnation of the two major parties especially the LNP.
Imagine anyone against the stage 3 tax cuts... only 5% of Australians lose out because of albos changes. The top 5
It's not even a "loss" as you write. It's still a tax cut, just not as large!
Depends if you think private can do better with the money than government. I trust private.
Stupid is as stupid does. Private has shown that it is greedy. It will continue to skyrocket CEO salaries, and stunt worker wages and freedoms. Only two people think that private could do better - the wealthy and the foolish.
Mate we work very hard and studied for it just to see out money being squandered on lost causes.
It's so nice to hear an intelligent and compassionate man on a stage for a change. It's very rare when everyone is all about their agenda and trying to make clever BS statements to fool people to blindly follow them.
In a cost of living crisis, it's such a terrible idea asking a PM to keep his plan from 6 years ago. No one could possibly have foreseen the future so far. Even the soviets planned for only 5 years ahead in their planned economy, which, by the way, turned out to be a mess.
I agree that the tax changes needed to happen. And it's just the start
Going through a cost of living crisis with millions of Australian low income earners suffering would not make any difference to the LNP tax policies ! Their tax policies have always been and always will be to give massive tax cuts to their supporters, the rich and the greedy !
Very well said, unfortunately we do not have the best business heads in parliament, they are career politicians. Our petroleum industries have not given enough back to this country for years when it comes to tax! The other factor destroying our economy is waste, waste of taxpayers money, federally and state. How can money be wasted so frivolously and nobody is being held to account?
Thank you for showing how corrupt or tax system is & how easily it can be reformed for the better and actually for the Australian peoples.
As always, excellent delivery. Thank you, Dr Denniss, you absolute legend.
It was a great presentation of what is happening in Australia with governments who bend over backwards to help out wealthy corporations pay no tax but leave it to average workers to pay all the tax. Labor is trying to do something but I fear they won’t go far enough because of the lobbyists and the headlines in the Murdoch media.
...and if you watch the Meet the Press Q&A video post, you'll see that overwhelmingly, the puppets asking the questions are fixated on that point, despite Dr Denniss' articulate explanations.
Labor have never been able to do really large swings to change only in a very few extreme cases. Usually its been incremental that leads to something big otherwise they get politically analed. They while change the stage 3 tax cuts "keep them" but reform them. They will also 100% change negative gearing, reform them but not remove them
@@maxpowers4436 i feel it is a dangerous game to go incremental as much as they do. Neoliberalism is driving greater disparity, and thus they are only one downturn from losing government. The populace is incredibly fickle. I feel we are luckier than many countries trying to navigate current seas, as we've always had a strong social system, but let's be real, neoliberalism is a major failure. I think we are positioned better than most to alter our economic system, but I'm not sure slow and steady is any longer an answer.
Richard Denniss thank you to you and your team at the Australia institute for pushing for common sense tax reform that benefits a broader range of people in our society. I have said to people if they paid more tax and got free public transport would they be on board and most are keen because they get something that would be a benefit to many Australians I don't if that's a great idea or not but it could be worth running the numbers on it. If we can encourage people to use public transport this could in some small part reduce green house gases with less cars on the road. Our public transport systems need improving, I've public transport in Japan and it's amazing.
Honest press club addresses like this are an assett. This address was excellent realistic and believable. What happened to removing out of date tax and general laws. I may look into the Australia Institute.
It is nice to see someone actually propose solutions to some of these problems instead of constant negativity which is so prevalent in today's discourse. We need to take the best parts from other countries policies which have proven records of success (even the countries we don't necessarily agree have at least some good policies), we just need to find a mix that works best for our country. We are a proud multicultural country and thus have experiences from people all over the world, we should all be working to mix the good parts from all these countries both economically and socially. We have always been a country that looks after your fellow citizens (we have a reputation for mateship). This is turning into an essay so to sum up , thank you Richard for a fresh look at this debate i hope you can bring bring some fairness and nation building rhetoric into the conversation. Would love to hear more, Regards Steve
Love Richard speech in NPCA
Everyone needs to see this video to make our politicians do the right thing for our economy and the Australia citizens who are struggling. . . . But I suppose the way things are going we have a long way to go. 😢
Thank you for the intelligent analysis. Excellent work!
It was great to hear how things really are.
This man's gotta be protected at all costs, bless his honesty and intellect about the state of things in this country
Right on Richard. Thanks for making it so much easier to understand as always
Great speech! Would have been even better if you called out the potential of land value taxation as a wealth tax, and tax on housing speculation. Housing is a top issue, linking tax reform to it would is important.
BRILLIANT!
Completely agree with Richard but while we have only two major parties and huge lobbyiist influence we are never going to emulate Denmark, Finland etc
It's hard to give tax cuts to people who don't pay any tax to start with😂
Yeah, it's crazy how people earning.millions of dollars don't pay tax, but people earning 45k do.
@mattcurry9220 as a rough guide 50% of taxpayers pay no net tax. 10% of taxpayers at the top end pay 50% of all tax. Fair?
@@tomh9894 No. The figure that you cite is for all tax payers, irrespective of whether they are working or not. So you have included pensioner,s income support payments etc. By including pensions, who have only small personal incomes, made up of a few hours of paid work or payouts from superannuation or dividends, you skew the figure by nearly 20%. The top 10% of earnet are contributing closer to 35% of the total income tax. What is even more disingenuous about your comment, is that you fail to mention that anyone earning over $83k is in the top 10% of earners (using your yardstick). Less than 3% of people earn over 180k taxable income. So the rest of the 10% of top earners make between 83k and 180k. All these figures are cited from the Australian Tax Office.
@@mattcurry9220 Very clever. Go have a read of The Road to Serfdom, and have a look at Argentina if you want to see our future.
@@tomh9894 Again, totally disingenuous reply. Australia bears nothing in common with Argentina's tax system or economy. The figure that you cited about income tax, came from a national newspaper (which youtube won't let me cite) and have been proven to be cherry picked. Every tax payer which earn over 73k pays more than a 1 to 1 ratio of overall income tax. If fact, I will cherry pick (using your figures) and say that the middle 45% of tax payers, who earn between 55k and 90k, pay 55% of all income taxes.
John Maynard Keynes was a genius who said: “when I’m persuaded I am wrong, I change my mind. What do you do?”. Dutton of course never read Keynes which explains his atavistic attitude to economics, politics and life. Robert Richter
'Tax is good' - only if you have competent government. More tax in Aus is likely to create even more waste on mining and car subsidies. Tax polluters not workers.
If you believe the Murdoch press, all government is incompetent. I can tell you now that I trust government a lot more than any corporation. Corporations and the Murdoch press have a vested interest in pushing this line and do so undermine our confidence in government.
Yeah, no.
That's pretty much what he said.
Its a pity most Australians are more interested in culture wars and some even vote against what is financially beneficial to them
Stop negative gearing and tax trusts properly. Perhaps don’t slog the middle class with even more income tax though.
There is still a need for long term view and planning
Goverments only seem interested in debt manipulation...think of debt as the gladiator and the best gladiators at the end of the day are already decided . Then Norwegians are the much healthier being and the healthier form of existance its just a shame the weather sucks
Fossil fuels and small homogenous population made them per capita rich. We love mass immigration and flat wages with housing crisis.
Why is Richard not the treasurer?
Great work you have given me more faith in this country going foward.
Whilst generally on the mark I think Richard should be careful comparing Australia to overseas peers without context. For instance - we don’t need to match income tax collections as a percentage of GDP when our national debt is 30% of the US, Germany, UK and France etc. If those countries have national debt of 4 times the level of Australia then their interest bill is 4 times higher. The result is higher income tax to service that debt. Further, is $200k salary a high salary in Australia today. For many average earners it looks like it is but the market encourages the payment of higher salaries for those whom have skills, training, experience and take risk. Those people need to contribute to tax collections but what is the fair level? Is it agreed or is it now a convenient argument in the political election cycle ? The fairness of some salaries is a seperate point and it needs a proper discussion of the taxes levied on essential but low income earners as opposed to the tax on so called ( but not really) high income earners. Why should essential workers, earning less than say $1000 a week pay any income tax given that they pay GST on a fair amount of their consumption? The system could be a lot fairer and if won’t occur by fiddling with bracket creep.
You make some great points, John. I agree that the tax-free threshold should be at least $52k. 🙂 However, the basis on which this whole tax debate is fiction. The whole nature of tax, and what it actually is, needs to be better understood by everyone, especially those who run the Federal Government's spending. Tax doesn't actually fund any Federal Government spending. Tax destroys the AUD it collects. All Federal Government spending is new spending. Federal Government taxes free up real resources that can then be used by the Federal Government for the public purpose. It also can be effective at changing socially poor behaviour as well as redirecting wealth to the poor. You see, the Australian Federal Government is the currency issuer. It can never run out of the currency it creates. Every other entity is a currency user. We all have to earn that currency first and can run out of it. Therefore, every spending decision by the Australian Federal Government is a political one, not a financial one. There is one real constraint in Australian Federal Government spending, namely, it must always be within the available real resources, both material and human, otherwise it will result in inflation.
5:18 So many people parrot the "increase consumption taxes to fight inflation" line, which just demonstrates their economic illiteracy. Making everything cost 5-10% more does not "drive down inflation".
Personal income tax is high in comparison to most nations and we miss manage those funds especially on bumps that have never worked a day in their lives
Video volume is too low
I guess I could move to Singapore and FIFO on various Mining site swings and pay zero tax at all. After all as outrageous as it is, that’s what the multinationals are doing. hundreds of billions of dollars untaxed.
Geez, mate. Fair go. Australia is Paradise and we are the Lucky Country. Why should we copy those Old World policies? What do they know about Fairness? We're the Fair Go country. Just ask Gina Reinhart
Very interesting
FF S. Any tax Relief we get, will go straight to the increased fuel excise. Give in one hand take more in the other.
The Labour Govt is collecting record tax's. Inflation means more people are in a higher tax rate, GST is booming with price rises. Low petrol tax you have to be joking. It dishonest not to detail how much tax % is levied.
You can't tax yourself to prosperity.
👏
Thanks Boomers.
I think we need to get rid of the GST because it taxes the economy, get rid of payroll tax because it taxes going to work and replace that loss of revenue with a Carbon tax because it encourages effiency, new technology and Hell it might even save life itself from being wiped out.
What a smart Alec probably on > $300K pa
Exactly, he deserves a tax cut!
Riiiight, exclude people from the discussion simply because they don’t agree with your hypothetical truth if only a bunch of preconditions actually exist. What a flop.
What a hero, love his ideas
I pay my respects to the diggers who taught for this nation Not the primitive cave men before me who couldn’t even invent the wheel or agriculture
Get rid if 'flat-taxes', these do not work for Australia.
And stop upping the interest rates to control inflation only serves the banking industry who have virtually no risk anymore.
Now if we get rid of negative gearing and capital gains for housing investors, we'd go a long way towards solving the housing crisis. States do all they can to bolster low income housing options while the federal government subsidises investors, which jacks the price of owning a home beyond the means of even middle class young people. Tax dilemma indeed.
Absolutely wrong about negative gearing. You are confused by the misuse of concepts by Richard Denniss of financial concepts and accompanying substution of words that are grossly misleading.. The federal government does not subsidise investors. It taxes the investors. Subsidies are money paid out by the authorities. Concessions in tax only occur after the producer has produced a good or service and made profit. Richard Denniss has confused concessions with subsidies and is misleading people. Richard would or should know that but you probably not aware of it. The situation in respect to negative gearing is that if it is dropped it will put the pressure on house prices which will rise even more due to a reduction in the amount of investment put into housing which will reduce the supply. - Reduced supply will be the driver for higher house prices because money is one of the necessary resources of any new production. New things cannot be produced and acquired by purchasers without it. Rental prices will also rise as consequence to fill the need.
@12:52 someone did not really care. :P
We have to stop voting the 2 same parties back into office.
And vote for who? Greens? Teals? Pauleen pants down? All worse than Dogshit
You mean the Liberal and Nationals. Labour is the only party with their eyes on the ball. If they didn’t have to argue against a “do nothing talk shit Coalition” and the over arching right wing media, more of this would be implemented. Everything this guy is talking about, is opposed by the right wingers and the corporate upper class they represent. They’re not interested in the majority of Australians, except to win elections. It’s Labour that implement social policy. It’s not the coalition.
You can vote progressive or conservative. The only on that actually takes us forward is in the name..
@@headswillroll89 Labor aren't progressive.
Why would people want to work and achieve something in life when every dollar you earn over 200k gets taxed at 47% ? Why are we awarding people that spends all their money and relies on pension and punish people that saves and invest wisely to support themselves in retirement?
As somebody in this tax bracket, money is not longer the primary driver for work and achievement. I'll end up doing something that pays around this level regardless of tax rates.
what you said might be true for some people but it definitely not for most people. The tax system should award people for working hard. Hence a fairer tax system should be cutting personal tax rate and increase GST. It makes perfect sense, more you spend, more tax you pay. Harder you work, more reward you will receive. Why are we punishing people for hard work ? It makes no sense.@@yuapanda
Yes, @@jacklee5001, taxing incomes is not equitable. Australia is one of the lowest taxing countries in the world for non-earned wealth such as real estate. The people who spend "all their money", namely lower-income earners, do so because that's all they have. In fact, they support the entire economic system and their spending provides employment for others. By giving a better tax break for lower-income earners, the Labor Government is actually promoting more jobs and greater wealth for every Australian. 🙂
Richard Denniss says "tax is good" and " tax is an investment in our society". NO, that is wrong being incorrectly derived from ignoring and confusing the chronology of what must happen to create any investment. Calling something an investment when itis not is just wishful thinking and as financially foolish as believing someone spent money they didn't have in their possession before they actually had it or control of it. He is misusing the concept of ' investment' and the time line that must occur which comes from people producing goods and services others desire and have paid for which in turn allows the creator to have a profit and then save by spending less than they incurred therefore being able to invest. Tax is not an investment because it is monetary transfer and just as if some other entity has taken the money people have earned then paid it to someone else which is what taxation does because it ignores the cost to the decreases the money and therefore the investment ability that the producer of that income had earned. The net outcome of the money the government gets in tax is a zero amount. Not an investment at all for the economy but just monetary transfer. . It is merely a redirection of someone else's earnings to various government determined purposes. Moreover, much of taxation is just paid out to people as welfare income which is not an investment at all that produces goods or services but is spent on consumption goods.
Richard 'Wrong Facts' Denniss again is putting across dubious information when he says Norway is high taxing. The base rate of income tax is between just 22% and 27%. Not only that Ireland's GDP per capita with low tax rates is higher than Norway and Denmark. Norway's capital gains tax is just 22%. Lower than that of Australia rate. A loss is normally deductable from other income. Norway also has negative gearing that reduces tax otherwise payable by the property investor if they made a profit. So Richard puts across very doubtful comparison claiming higher taxes are more beneficial to the people in Norway than the supposed lower rates in Australia.
What a liar. Cut income and business tax rates to match Singapore.
I would have thought that Richard Denniss had understood Modern Monetary Theory (having interviewed Stephanie Kelton). Clearly, he does not. Taxes do not pay for federal government spending.
Gonna side with Richard on this one mate.
Yeah, no. I don't think facts are your thing.
Terry, you're 100% correct. 🤗 The whole nature of tax, and what it actually is, needs to be better understood by everyone, especially those who run the Federal Government's spending. Tax doesn't actually fund any Federal Government spending. Tax destroys the AUD it collects. All Federal Government spending is new spending. Federal Government taxes free up real resources that can then be used by the Federal Government for the public purpose. It also can be effective at changing socially poor behaviour as well as redirecting wealth to the poor. You see, the Australian Federal Government is the currency issuer. It can never run out of the currency it creates. Every other entity is a currency user. We all have to earn that currency first and can run out of it. Therefore, every spending decision by the Australian Federal Government is a political one, not a financial one. There is one real constraint in Australian Federal Government spending, namely, it must always be within the available real resources, both material and human, otherwise it will result in inflation.
Spot on. But how are we going to convince the 99% of the population that they have been bullshitted to for the last 40 or so years@@gregoryolsen4509
Lowest tax?!!'b Australia Institute!!! The most socialist policy organisation What do you expect ??
This all makes sense if you don’t think too hard. Textbook first order thinking from a marketer.
Spare us the acknowledgements. Get to the point.
TERRA NULLIUS IS REAL I DONT NEED TO BE WELCOMED BY ANYONE
A promise is a promise . Or did you parents not teach you that...
I think he explained this particular take quite clearly. Why is this promise, which SHOULD have been broken, any different to the liberals promise that they wouldn't hand out money during Covid? Or bring in the GST?
Who said no more cuts to Medicare, ABC & SBS? Who said cheaper and faster NBN? All broken promises ruining this country! Yep, it was the Liberal government under Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison. Broken promises galore.
Ah well that's ok then!!!! The economy when he came into power was at its worst in terms of inflation.. yet he still made the promise... It not that it is a bad decision.. it he lied when he full well knew he would be under pressure to review it... That the issue not the decision..
@@galahad6001 mate, if he said else you know the ferocious right wing media would have hounded him. Com’on. Have some common sense. We knew those stupid LNP tax cuts for the rich ONLY weren’t palatable.
Yeah Howard and Abbot never did that did they
Yes Norway and denmark exist, but they haven't been importing 600, 000 immigrants per year and not building enough homes for them. Government is grinding Aussies to a pulp.