Tax breaks fuelling widening wealth gap, new report shows
Tax breaks on superannuation and housing investments are fuelling a widening gap between “rich” Australians and those with less money, AAP reports.
Anglicare Australia’s Widening the Gap report reveals the richest people hold 90 times the wealth of low-income earners, and the gap continues to grow.
The average wealth of the highest one-fifth of income earners was $3.2m, which was 90 times the lowest earners bringing in $36,000, the report based on 2019-20 University of NSW analysis found.
Financial inequality has been supercharged by tax breaks on superannuation, housing investments and sky-high home prices which have locked many Australians out of the market. Over the last 20 years, the report found, the average value of superannuation assets grew by 155% while investment property rose by almost 100%.
Anglicare’s executive director, Kasy Chambers, said the growing gap is a direct result of government policies on tax which are driving inequality. However, Anglicare Australia said the solution lies in changing the approach of governments to tax.
The welfare group wants the federal government to wind back “generous” superannuation concessions for wealthy Australians and instead help low-income earners build their retirement savings.
Anglicare Australia also called for housing tax breaks like capital gains tax discounts and negative gearing deductions to be wound back.
Key events
Adeshola Ore
More on Victoria’s Airbnb levy exemptions
Circling back to news that primary residences will be exempt from Victoria’s short-term stay levy: speaking to reporters, the state treasurer, Tim Pallas, said the levy would “get the balance right” with the state’s mix of housing and tourism.
Pallas said the levy would raise around $60m a year to be funnelled into building and maintaining social and affordable housing.
The housing minister, Harriet Shing, said the levy would help create permanent housing for people in need:
The upshot of this levy is we will be able to provide more housing to victim-survivors of family violence and young people.
Treasurer’s ‘most divisive’ call branded hypocritical by opposition
Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ branding of Peter Dutton as the “most divisive” party leader in Australia’s history is hypocritical and a political distraction, the Liberal leader’s deputy says.
As AAP reports, the deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, rejected the bold claim and accused the treasurer of hypocrisy. She told Sky News just earlier:
Divisive is to unleash the voice, spend $500m and then say that if you vote no, you’re a bad person – that’s divisive.
The treasurer was trying to “talk tough” in front of Labor colleagues, she said.
I feel a bit sorry for Jim Chalmers, he spent his whole life planning and plotting in Labor’s factual queue, only to come up with this sort of stuff.
He’s got a PhD in politics, not economics, and that’s on full display.
Victorian government to introduce Airbnb levy with exemptions
Adeshola Ore
Airbnb properties that are the owner’s primary residence will be exempt from Victoria’s short-term stay levy that will begin next year.
The Victorian government will introduce legislation for the Australian-first levy this week that will come into effect on 1 January 2025. It will apply a 7.5% levy on revenue for short-stay accommodation on platforms like Airbnb and Stayz.
In a letter to Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, the Victoria treasurer, Tim Pallas, confirmed that principal places of residence will be exempt from the levy. The letter, viewed by Guardian Australian also lays out additional reforms secured by the Greens.
Under the legislation, local councils and owners’ corporations will have the power to veto or restrict short-term accommodation.
Coalition of NGOs release climate report ahead of Pacific Islands Forum
A coalition of NGOs has released a report in line with the Pacific Islands Forum, showing that at least US$1tn is needed to support low-income countries bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.
The report – titled Seizing the moment: a new climate finance goal that delivers for the Pacific – reveals the Australian government must “exponentially increase” its support for global climate solutions, and demonstrate its solidarity with Pacific neighbours.
The report calls for Australia to support the US$1tn global climate finance goal and to contribute to a global loss and damage fund established at COP28.
Michelle Higelin, executive director at ActionAid Australia, said that “we can’t tinker around the edges when it comes to climate finance.”
The climate crisis is already pushing Pacific countries into excruciating debt, and deepening gender inequality. Low income countries are bearing the brunt of climate impacts despite doing the least to cause the climate crisis and urgently need finance to adapt and mitigate against climate impacts.
Lyn Morgain, the chief executive of Oxfam Australia, said that Australia – as one of the wealthiest and highest per capita emitters of climate pollution – “contrasts starkly with Pacific communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis, who bear its harshest impacts yet receive only a fraction of the needed climate finance”.
Tax breaks fuelling widening wealth gap, new report shows
Tax breaks on superannuation and housing investments are fuelling a widening gap between “rich” Australians and those with less money, AAP reports.
Anglicare Australia’s Widening the Gap report reveals the richest people hold 90 times the wealth of low-income earners, and the gap continues to grow.
The average wealth of the highest one-fifth of income earners was $3.2m, which was 90 times the lowest earners bringing in $36,000, the report based on 2019-20 University of NSW analysis found.
Financial inequality has been supercharged by tax breaks on superannuation, housing investments and sky-high home prices which have locked many Australians out of the market. Over the last 20 years, the report found, the average value of superannuation assets grew by 155% while investment property rose by almost 100%.
Anglicare’s executive director, Kasy Chambers, said the growing gap is a direct result of government policies on tax which are driving inequality. However, Anglicare Australia said the solution lies in changing the approach of governments to tax.
The welfare group wants the federal government to wind back “generous” superannuation concessions for wealthy Australians and instead help low-income earners build their retirement savings.
Anglicare Australia also called for housing tax breaks like capital gains tax discounts and negative gearing deductions to be wound back.
Independent MP calls for census decision to be reversed
The independent MP for Wentworth, Allegra Spender, said the decision to exclude a question about sexuality and gender diversity in the upcoming census “must be reversed”.
The assistant minister for Treasury, Andrew Leigh, confirmed there would be no changes to the 2026 census more than a year after the Australian Bureau of Statistics issued a statement of regret over the distress felt by the LGBTQ+ community as a result of being left out of censuses.
In a post to X this morning, Spender said she would write to Leigh today about the issue:
Are LGBTIQ+ Australians invisible? Only in the census. The [government’s] decision not to include questions on sexuality [and] gender in the census is inexplicable.
I wrote to the minister in April. I’m writing again today. This disgraceful decision must be reversed.
Conroy argues Dutton trying to divide Australians as ‘pathway to power’
Pat Conroy was asked about those comments from Jim Chalmers overnight, calling opposition leader Peter Dutton “pathologically divisive”.
Is the government concerned that Dutton is cutting through in Australian households? Conroy responded:
I support Jim Chalmers’ comments because Peter Dutton is the alternate prime minister, and you can’t look at what the federal government is doing in a vacuum. You need to look at what the alternative is.
Peter Dutton is arguing for nuclear power stations in earthquake zones like my Hunter region. He’s arguing for no 2030 target. He makes jokes about Pacific islands being wiped out by rising sea levels. If he was prime minister, our relationship with the Pacific would go backwards, and our national security and our security would be weakened … he tries to divide Australia every single day because he thinks that’s his pathway to power.
Conroy says he can ‘absolutely’ say Australia is doing enough on climate change
The minister for international development and the Pacific, Pat Conroy, spoke with ABC News Breakfast from Tonga earlier this morning, where he is attending the Pacific Islands Forum.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has been very strong on urging larger nations to do their bit on climate change, with the Pacific relying on larger countries to take action. Conroy was asked: can we look those Pacific Island nations’ leaders in the eye and say we’re doing enough on this issue?
The minister responded, “absolutely”:
The Pacific leaders understand our very strong targets – our 2030 targets, our net zero targets by 2050, our commitment to deliver 82% renewable energy by 2030 really resonates, as well as our support for action in the Pacific.
We announced last year [a] $100m investment in the Pacific resilience facilities, all about helping the Pacific control their future and adapt to climate change where it is occurring.
In my remarks in response to the UN secretary-general, I requested his help to ask for partner countries – countries outside the Pacific – to make an investment in that Pacific resilience facility, because that’s Pacific-led, Pacific-controlled and, will fund projects critical to their climate future.
Greens senator says PM’s inclusion in Mardis Gras a matter for the LGBTQ+ community
Finally, Mehreen Faruqi was asked whether the PM should be banned from marching in Mardi Gras, after his government quietly dumped the proposal to include a question about sexuality and gender diversity in the upcoming census.
Faruqi said this was a matter for the LGBTQ+ community.
I do understand where they are coming from. This community has been persecuted for so long, and we must take every single step to make sure that that discrimination ends, and that is not happening. The prime minister is not doing that.
At the weekend, the Mardi Gras board said it would hold a vote at the end of the year on the future participation of the NSW police force in the annual parade.
Faruqi says Dutton has ‘track record on Muslims, on migrants, on refugees’
Mehreen Faruqi was asked if she agreed with treasurer Jim Chalmers assessment of the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, of being “the most divisive leader of a major political party in Australia’s modern history”.
Faruqi said that Dutton has a “track record on Muslims, on migrants, on refugees” and “a lot of the policies [are] coming from that divisiveness”.
She was asked about today’s Guardian Essential poll, that more voters back Dutton’s call to pause arrivals of Palestinians from the Gaza conflict than oppose it.
Faruqi argued that this is “what happens when people propose these divisive policies and then talk about them every single day as if that is the reality”:
The double standards around refugees should be clear to everyone, if it is actually spoken about. Communities are really distraught about the double standards being used between Palestinian refugees and, for instance, Ukrainian refugees …
I think about 71% [of Palestinian refugees] have been refused. So the processes are being followed … but still this narrative being put out in the community every single day … that there is something wrong with Palestinians who are coming here, that they are terrorists. And I think that is absolutely divisive, that is disgusting and disgraceful.
Faruqi calls for independent investigation into Israeli airstrike that killed Australian aid worker
The deputy leader of the Greens, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, is speaking to ABC RN about the investigation into the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom by an Israeli airstrike.
Zomi’s brother, Mal Frankcom, spoke with ABC’s 7.30 program last night about the investigation and said:
The one thing that stood out was the audio from the drone footage that wasn’t there. I … was told that it was in Hebrew and it wouldn’t be understood, but I think they should be able to get a translation transcript of the audio communication in the lead up to the strike.
You can read more about this below:
Faruqi said she has “long-called for an independent investigation into the murder of Zomi Frankcom and the six other aid workers.”
And absolutely it should happen, and those responsible should be prosecuted … This has to be a completely independent investigation …
Children’s advocate criticises new NT government’s move to lower age of criminal responsibility
Catherine Liddle, the CEO of SNAICC, National Voice for Our Children, spoke with ABC News Breakfast just earlier on the incoming Northern Territory government’s commitment to lower the age of criminal responsibility back to 10.
Responding to this news, Liddle said that “your heart sinks, your stomach sinks, and the hard work kicks in”:
At 10, you are just a child. The evidence had long shown, and again it was a royal commission that unearthed it in the Northern Territory, that the conditions in detention centres were absolutely inhumane.
And those findings have been backed up by reports right across the country to say conditions in detention centres actually do very little to work on the rehabilitation of the child and protection of the child. In actual fact, children come out more harmed than when they went in.
Those children, when they’re coming in contact with the child detention centres and juvenile justice systems, they’re the most vulnerable children in the country. These are not children that have food to eat at night. These are not children that know they’ve got shoes to put on. These are not children who have really safe beds to sleep in. These are children that are doing it really, really tough.
So when they come into those detention centres, when they come into contact with the juvenile justice system, the outcomes are not good. Those children are more likely to reoffend and even more alarmingly, the younger you are, the more likely you are to ever break that cycle. What the evidence doesn’t show is that detention, juvenile detention for the ages 10 to 14, has any impact on community safety or reducing crime.
Treasurer responds to CFMEU protests planned across country today
The treasurer was also asked about rallies planned in support of the CFMEU today, across Australia’s national capitals.
(We covered this a bit earlier in the blog here).
Jim Chalmers said that “obviously, when you appoint an administrator to a union and you move on a couple of hundred officials, there’s going to be blowback.”
We expect that. We want these protests to be peaceful today, but they’re not surprising when you take on the leaders of a union with the sorts of behaviour that has been alleged in recent times.