Treasurer Jim “chicken” Chalmers, the wholesale wrecker of Australian living standards does not have a leg stand on when criticising others:
Jim Chalmers has ruled out the Greens’ $514bn “Robin Hood tax” on big businesses, accusing them of “making up numbers”.
…But the Treasurer dismissed their plan and argued the government’s “methodical approach” is better than a raid on profit.
“The Greens, their primary task is to make up numbers and put out press releases,” he told Sky News.
In effect, the Greens are calling for a rentier tax. This is a sensible proposition that fits easily within any notion of a sustainable liberal democracy.
Banks, miners, telcos, gas companies etc all make above-normal returns from Australia. They manage this by depressing competition at the policy level.
If so, a Piguvian rentier tax is an excellent response that could fund personal income tax cuts to return the economic rents to those from which they were stolen.
It is because Treasurer Jim “chicken” Chalmers is a policy coward that this rentier tax becomes even more necessary.
If we had such a tax today, then inflation would be far lower and real incomes far higher, instead of the Chalmer’s shocker:
For that matter, the Greens’ tax reform, energy, competition, and housing policies are all superior to Chalmer’s corporate grovelling.
Australia’s worst treasurer ever is in no position to throw stones at anybody.
