This election has boiled down to a question of who do you care about – me or us?
People who like to call themselves self-funded retirees are insisting they should keep their government handout for excess franking credits – what was a tax offset to avoid double taxation has morphed into zero taxation from companies as they pay their tax to their shareholders instead of the government.
Property investors are insisting that they should be able to reduce their tax liability from other income earned by claiming a deduction for the interest they are paying on their loan – something those struggling with a mortgage on their home cannot do.
Those who have assets like investment properties and shares feel they should only be charged tax on half the money they make when they sell. Unlike workers whose entire income is counted when determining the tax they pay – and they have to work to earn it.
Wealthy people are insisting they should get a tax cut because they pay so much tax. They never talk about how they collect so much income and own so much wealth. They also want to be able to claim whatever they pay to accountants to minimise their tax, thus cutting it even further.
We are assured that if businesses make more profit, and rich people pay less tax, they will share the wealth by employing us all and giving us wage rises.
Except they want to employ us as labour hire or casuals or sham contractors so they can lay us off whenever they want and don’t have to pay sick or annual leave. No-one ever gets to long service leave. They want to employ backpackers and international students and temporary visa labour because, hey, they can’t complain.
And we don’t need wage rises because inflation is so low. Forget any idea about sharing in the record company profits your labour has delivered – you don’t need it.
Miners earning $250,000 a year want to keep their jobs – who wouldn’t? They don’t care about that inner-city bullshit about climate change or water tables or endangered species or native title. What are you gonna do to cut our tax Bill?
Irrigators can’t be expected to worry about the people downstream. Find your own water. And those are roads, not levees, though I might have some spare floodwater if the price is right.
People who can afford to send their children to so-called “private” schools have demanded that more and more money be diverted from the public education system to fund their choice to send their child to a school with swimming pools, squash courts, recording studios and an Olympic rowing coach.
Religious people are insisting on their right to discriminate against anyone they choose – find a bible verse and you can ignore the law of the land. We will pay for religious chaplains to go into public schools to instruct anyone whose parents have neglected to indoctrinate them but we will not tolerate schools talking about respectful relationships or diversity – that sort of stuff, unlike religious education, should be left up to parents.
There will be no consideration of a rise to Newstart by the Coalition because the best welfare is a job. All those who don’t have one just aren’t trying hard enough and those who can’t live on what they earn should just move back in with their parents.
We want house prices to go up because that makes us wealthier. To help young people get in the market we will allow them to take on greater debt. Rents will go up if you are a tenant and down if you are a landlord…apparently. Social housing? Communism!!
Permanent migration will be slashed to bust congestion. Temporary visas, on the other hand, will continue to rise in order to keep us out of recession and to allow our universities to make up for the cuts in funding.
Indigenous people will not get a voice to parliament – who do they think they are? Clive Palmer?
Come Saturday, the choice is clear. Do you care about yourself or the country?
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