En Passant

I was going to write about Joe Hockey leaving Parliament but I don’t won’t to speak ill of the brain dead.

Australia is a low tax, low spending country. It’s time we started taxing the rich and the big business tax avoiders more, not less.

James Supple writes in Solidarity magazine that the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling at the University of Canberra (NATSEM) released modelling that did the sums [on Hockey’s 2015 Budget]. As Ben Phillips from NATSEM explained, “the overall picture is one where low income families do the heavy lifting.

Instead of Joe Hockey fantasising about the rest of us getting well paid jobs (which is just code for ‘only the rich can afford to live here’) tax the rich and big business to build affordable public housing for the people.

‘Nothing is off the agenda and your exciting ideas about taxing the rich should be part of the national conversation,’ Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey told me.

The next time the Treasurer tells you he has to cut pensions, aboriginal services, women’s refuges, health or education funding, ask him why he doesn’t shut down the section 25-90 rort and use the $600 million a year on something socially useful. What about it Mr Hockey? This of course is the same Mr Hockey happy to see Chris Jordan, the former NSW manager of major tax avoidance ‘planning’ firm, KPMG, and current Commissioner of Taxation, destroy the Australian Tax Office and its already meagre capacity to police the rich and powerful tax avoiders and evaders. Regulatory capture is the word I think we are searching for here, Mr Hockey.

When announcing that the Abbott government wouldn’t go ahead with the repeal of section 25-90, Hockey said they would introduce more targeted changes to address the issue. They abandoned even this pretence in Monday’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. Evidently it would be impractical to go ahead with any changes. Impractical for whom Mr Hockey? Your rich and powerful tax avoiding mates.

I have a simple question for the Treasurer. Why don’t you tell us what the ATO thinks about section 25-90?

Joe Hockey is the best friend the big business tax avoiders have.

Far better from Hockey’s point of view that we pay $7 to doctors than that his mates pay even $7 in tax.

A great meme which captures what is so wrong with this Abbott/Hockey Government, a more vicious but less successful version of neoliberalism than Labor when in government.

Let’s be fair. Hockey is partly right. With his government increasing unemployment – it jumped from 6% to 6.4% last month – and denying those under 30 the dole for 6 months, young unemployed people won’t be able to buy food let alone drive anywhere.