Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Nick McKim, has responded to the Treasurer's Ministerial Statement on the Economy.

“The Treasurer has just told Australians to brace for higher unemployment and further real wage cuts because interest rates are going to go up.

“But the Treasurer said nothing about what big corporations should brace for.

“The share of national income going to corporate profits are at record highs, and the share of national income going to wages are at record lows.

“Corporate profiteering is fuelling inflation, not wages.

The Greens have pledged $1.14 billion in extra federal funding for WA chronically underfunded hospitals.

This investment would be funded by repairing the broken ‘resource super profits tax’ (the PRRT), forcing big corporations to pay royalties on the gas they currently access for free.

The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT), introduced in 1987, is meant to ensure that the public gets a fair share of the unearned revenue (rent) enjoyed by companies by virtue of having exclusive access to Commonwealth resources. 

Greens SA Senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, has joined with Greens Senate Candidate for SA in calling for Labor to reverse their support for the Morrison government's dismantling of Australia's progressive taxation system.

Lines attributable to Senator Sarah Hanson-Young:

"The Liberals and Labor are on a joint ticket when it comes to giving federal politicians a $9,000 tax cut, while minimum-wage workers - like those in aged care - get nothing."

Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, says revelations in the Oxfam report that Australian billionaires have doubled their already obscene fortunes gives strength to the Greens’ proposal for a 6% annual tax on billionaires’ wealth.

Over the course of the pandemic, while people endured lockdowns and hardship, billionaires doubled their wealth to $255 billion, equivalent to the wealth of 7.7 million Australians, held by just 47 people.

Greens leader, Adam Bandt MP said:

The Federal Government has comprehensively failed to make the case for trying to exempt the Future Fund’s investments from Freedom of Information laws.

“We need far greater scrutiny of the Future Fund’s investment decisions, not less,” Greens Economic Justice Spokesperson Senator McKim said.

“It is through the Freedom of Information scheme that we learned of the Future Fund’s $3.2 million investment in Adani Ports.”

”The Government has completely failed to justify this exemption, and it is clearly trying to keep the investments away from public scrutiny.”

Labor’s decision to let big corporations keep JobKeeper profits is a complete capitulation, the Greens say.

“We know that $13 billion went to boosting the bottom line of profitable companies during the pandemic,” Greens Economic Justice spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

“The fact that Labor is happy for big corporations to keep this money just shows that they are far more focused on their big donors than helping people who need it most.”

The ‘Pandora papers’ disclosed today reveal that Australia is a weak link in the fight against international tax avoidance, with accounting firms and real estate agents excluded from having to report to financial regulators over many suspicious transactions, giving these Australian firms a competitive advantage when orchestrating money laundering schemes for the super-rich.

Australia is one of only six countries in the world where accountants, lawyers and real estate agents are not required to report under anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.

The Greens have today announced they will push for a new 40% corporate super-profits tax on the excess profits made by big corporations, including mining corporations, in the balance of power after the next election.

The Greens’ push for a ‘tycoon tax’ follows the announcement this week of record super-profits across retail and mining sectors, and National Account figures showing the profit share of national income at the highest (30.3%) since records began, eclipsing last year’s new record¹.

One Nation has let the Government off the hook on JobKeeper rorts, just as public pressure is mounting to unsustainable levels, the Greens say.

“Reporting which publicly listed companies received JobKeeper isn’t nearly enough as most of this information was already available,” Greens Economic Justice spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

“This stitch up covers less than 5% of the $90 billion in JobKeeper payments made  - private companies, private schools and foreign entities will be exempt, and we may never know how much they received.”

Companies claiming a bigger share of profits at the direct expense of workers shows the need to properly tax big corporations and the super wealthy, the Greens say.

National accounts figures released today show that the wage share of total income has fallen to just 50.6 per cent, the second lowest on record and lowest in 61 years.

The figures also show that profits share of income has hit 30.3 per cent, the highest on record.