Flags And Other Threatening Things...

One thing you have to admire about Greg Sheridan is that -…

Political Manipulation: Reclaiming Critical Thinking

By Denis Hay Description Explore how political manipulation by vested interests exploits political decisions…

Hatred

By Bert Hetebry I was sent this quote by Bertrand Russell this morning: “When…

Queensland Futures: Massaging Labor’s Primary Vote

By Denis Bright Labor’s Alternative Policy Direction can be packaged as an…

Handmaiden to the Establishment: Peter Greste’s Register of…

When established, well fed and fattened, a credible professional tires from the…

Queensland Futures: A LNP Landslide on 26 October…

By Denis Bright Clutching their Little Blue Book of Motherhood Statements in…

Sensor trial hopes to empower managers to monitor…

Bushfires are one of Australia’s greatest challenges and are becoming more frequent…

Conflict ‘deepens and amplifies’ gender inequality – new…

New global research involving over 10,000 children and young people from 10…

«
»
Facebook

Wage Rises in the Neoliberal New World Order

Neoliberals are often wrong but never in doubt. In pursuing its corporate tax cut agenda the Government is attempting to shift the industrial relations paradigm – linking private sector wage rises to public sector funding cuts, despite the fact corporate coffers have rarely been in better shape, writes Rob Stewart.

It is difficult to put into words just how fundamentally bereft and indefensible the Government’s corporate tax cut agenda is. It is not my intention to go into the myriad faults in the policy here. My piece of 9th March this year, posted on John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations site, touches on just a few elements of the ideologically driven and fiscally reckless policy.

Apparently, everybody wants wage rises to happen. Mr Turnbull says he wants them. Mr Shorten, as usual, is ‘me too’ when it comes to wages rises. Even Reserve Bank Governor, Phillip Lowe, says he wants them. Lowe recognises stagnating demand is a risk to the economy. He actually wants workers to walk into their bosses offices and demand wage rises, fair dinkum, real wage rises, right now, just like that. On the other hand, Turnbull thinks, despite corporate coffers rarely being in better shape, tax cuts are absolutely and obviously essential for wage rises to occur.

Last year the Treasurer directed The Treasury to undertake research on why wages growth in Australia has been subdued – as if it is some kind of mystery. The Treasury Report, Analysis of Wage Growth, November 2017, manages to stretch its analysis and discussion to about 70 pages. In typical Treasury fashion it loves getting lost in complexity and it is full of charts showing all sorts of data on wages and incomes. Two things stand out. Firstly, the Report doesn’t even mention the issue of corporate taxation, let alone whether Australia’s rate of corporate taxation is holding back wages growth – perhaps this was an oversight or perhaps it was considered an irrelevancy. Secondly, its discussion of the institutional arrangements, including the industrial relations system, is left to the last chapter. In this chapter there is at least some discussion on how the industrial relations system has been systematically pulled apart over the past few decades and re-engineered in favour of business by governments of both political persuasions, but the Report doesn’t say it quite like that.

Treasury concludes long term trends in wages growth are based on productivity and inflationary expectations, but evidence on why wages growth has stagnated recently is unclear and it is difficult to draw firm conclusions. The Treasury could have saved itself a lot of time and effort. Page 28 of the Report refers to observations by Bank of England economist Andrew Haldane. The Report states Haldane noted “… that there is evidence that trends towards self-employment, flexible working, zero-hours contracts and de-unionisation – whether voluntary or involuntary – may have affected wages.” That pretty much sums it up, in a typically British understated fashion. Treasury could have just used Haldane’s statement for the Australian experience and left it at that.

Recently I was watching a televised interview of a former CEO of one of Australia’s major corporations. This individual was effusive about the general healthy state and profitability of the corporate sector. When asked about how these good times might flow on to decent wage rises this individual said that would only be “affordable” if the Government was visionary enough to cut corporate taxes. Apparently, despite being awash with funds, by the time shareholders take larger dividends, share buy backs are fully exploited and bosses have gorged themselves on very much deserved salary increases, higher bonuses and assorted emoluments, there really isn’t enough left over for actual workers. Tax cuts are necessary to give corporations the “incentive” to spend real money on improving productivity of employees so they could, eventually, all things being equal, offer workers a reasonable pay rise. Without tax cuts their hands were tied. The purely indefensible stupidity of this argument is palpable.

This week the Business Council of Australia delivered a letter to Parliament imploring the Senate to pass the Government’s corporate tax cuts. Apparently, the letter’s 10 corporate signatories promise (sort of) the tax cuts will be used to fund investment in their enterprises in Australia. I don’t know whether the letter explained how the additional funds arising from the corporate tax cuts would be quarantined for investment purposes only and not spent on further executive excesses. Maybe it’s just a ‘trust’ thing. At the same time ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus, was speaking at the National Press Club. McManus provided an account of how business has been dudding employees in Australia for decades. She spoke about rising inequality, low wages growth, technological change, globalisation, casualisation of work, the rise of the gig economy, wage theft, deregulation of industrial relations and active disempowerment of labour in the work place. The fact these two events occurred at the same time exquisitely juxtaposed the parallel universes within which business class elites and everyone else exist.

In pursuing its corporate tax cut agenda the Government is attempting to shift the industrial relations paradigm. The implication of its argument is private sector wage rises should be contingent on public sector funding cuts. This is the inevitable consequence of further erosion of the revenue base, unless offsetting tax increases are being planned elsewhere or the Government actually believes in supply side magic puddings and trickle down economics. If it believes in these fantasies it should have the courage to explicitly say so. It hasn’t. The implications are clear. If the tax cuts are passed there will either be offsetting increases in taxes elsewhere in the economy or cuts in public spending in areas such as education and health, or both. If the tax cuts are not passed and you don’t get a pay rise, don’t blame your boss, blame the Labor Party. Forget the fact these are salad days for the corporate sector. Forget that in the past factors such as productivity, profitability and company growth were key indicators in determining affordability of wage rises in industrial and enterprise bargaining. These factors are no longer enough, that’s all in the past – we now live in the neoliberal new world order.

Neoliberals are often wrong but never in doubt. However, it is important to distinguish neoliberal theory from fact. In theory neoliberalism is about: getting government out of the way of business; the public sector is a dead end drag, the private sector does everything better; taxation is theft; there are winners and losers, lifters and leaners, whingers and doers; the rich are deserving and the poor are disgusting; democracy is over rated and economic freedom is king. Neoliberalsim in fact is a very different thing. It wants the government to play a big role in the economic realm, but only in serving the interests of corporate elites. It is about: privatisation for the poor but socialism for the rich; tough love and wage cuts for the precariat but huge cash bonuses for the rich; jail for the poor but fines for the rich; corporatisation for persons and personhood for corporations; tax cuts for the rich and funding cuts for the poor. It is only within the context of neoliberal fact that the corporate tax cut agenda can be understood.

Hypothetically, assume the corporate tax cuts are passed and over the next year or two wages rise slightly in real terms. Then that’s that, it’s over. After all the huff and puff and heat and argument it’s done. Now, assume the corporate good times continue but real wages start stagnating again. How will another real wage increase happen? Perhaps, the government of the day, be it Coalition or Labor, will argue a further corporate tax cut is required because Singapore, Ireland or Chile has just dropped its corporate tax rate to 5%. If this happens it will be “obvious” “economics 101” that Australia must also drop its corporate tax rate again. This will be because, in the age of globalisation and mobile capital, governments have no choice but to continue to keep cutting corporate taxes otherwise all our businesses will simply up stumps and bugger off. This is a pure and simple neoliberal lie and it represents the aspirations neoliberals have for democracy – there is no such thing as society, no alternative, no choice. Now envisage the same government arguing the GST must be increased from 20% to 25% (yes, currently it’s 10%) because we have a fiscal crisis, it’s a debt and deficit disaster, we are living beyond our means and the government must get the money from somewhere. It’s a totally hypothetical scenario of course.

Rob Stewart is a retired economist and former Senior Executive in the Australian Public Service, with experience primarily in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (AusAID), and The Treasury and The Department of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development.

Like what we do at The AIMN?

You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.

Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!

Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.

You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969

Donate Button

15 comments

Login here Register here
  1. MikeW

    Seeing as over one third of companies operating in Australia pay no tax, and the rest pay little after cooking the books. What is the point of company tax cuts?
    As for the liberals wanting wage growth? Yeah right, that’s why they agreed with the FWC cutting penalty rates to the lowest paid workers in Australia. This was supposed create more jobs which it didn’t, according to research from Wollongong University.
    And a little known fact, butchers working in Woolworth have had a $160.00 per week pay cut because robots cut and package the meat in Melbourne which is shipped out to their stores, the butchers unpack the boxes and stack the meat on the shelves, they are now called shelf stackers. I kid you not.

  2. babyjewels10

    It’s a crime but who is standing up for Australia? Not even the voters, it would seem, given Tasmania and South Australia.

  3. Andreas Bimba

    The Liberals are the representatives for local and foreign capital. A few crumbs in the form of negative gearing, CGT concessions, superannuation contribution concessions and weak tax enforcement as well as a two tier education, health and justice system are thrown at the upper tier of the middle class so they still vote for these puppets even though they too in the main have been set on a trajectory of stagnating or declining net disposable incomes.

    The Tasmanian and SA election results show that ignorance and greed are endemic in the electorate.

  4. Freethinker

    Spot on Andreas Bimba, and the government and companies are well aware of that and use it to their benefit.
    If we agree with the that the conservative governments are acting in behalf of the global corporations then we have to a gree that they are doing and excellent job based on the results.
    Unfortunately we are on the other side of the coin……..

  5. Ryan

    Nothing really surprises me anymore. Anyone who REALLY wants to know whats going on should definitely check this out, its a pretty scary warning from a history and religion professor. Pretty damn eye opening: https://ancientprophecy.weebly.com/

  6. Diane Larsen

    Yet people keep voting against their own best interests so is it brainwashing lack of education or just plain apathy awake peasants time to take up the cudgels and return to a semblance of equality

  7. townsvilleblog

    Corporate taxation, what they collectively actually pay is 17.2% so it’s not the tax rate that needs to come down, it’s the taxation deductions that need to be erased permanently, it looks as though Senator Hanson will pass the $65 Billion tax cut for the very rich and overseas multinational corporations so we must keep in mind or rather the ALP should keep in mind abolishing some of their legal deductions which bring their taxable income down to bugger all!

  8. townsvilleblog

    Diane, I couldn’t agree more!

  9. nexusxyz

    Neoliberal economic nuttery promoted by brain dead ideologues is taking a wrecking ball to this country and what will result will be rising poverty and the turning of parts of the two largest cities into third world slums. All this so their mates can make a few dollars more profit. No such thing as a free ride as their few dollars means for the rest of us a loss of a future for the kids, de-skilling of the indigenous workforce, low skill and low pay jobs (if you can find one), loss of amenity, rising congestion, declining public services, tens of billions wasted on a futile attempt to band-aid failing infrastructure, etc. Our ability to compete with rapidly industrialising Asian countries will nose dive and when the property bubble ends the economic damage will be epic. It is too late to avoid this calamity. Politicians are a pox on us.

  10. Freethinker

    nexusxyz, their are not brain dead, they are morally dead, morally corrupted but very effective in get what they want.

  11. Florence nee Fedup

    If the PM can guarantee all companies pay the 25% in full, the change proposed could be good. #auspol

  12. ace Jones

    ” The Tasmanian and SA election results show that ignorance and greed are endemic in the electorate. ”
    …. the whole truth from Andreas Bimba.

    “Greed is the inventor of injustice as well as the current enforcer. “

  13. Glenn Barry

    To say that I AM ABSOLUTELY LIVID to see this on the ABC website is the absolute pinnacle of understatement

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-25/free-up-the-market-for-economic-growth/9580198

    Those IPA grubs have got their own damned website, doubtful anyone reads it, but that’s their faults, their trite garbage DOES NOT deserve publication on the public broadcasters website.

  14. Rob

    Yes, if it was an article criticising the company tax cuts Turnbull and his ABC bullying thugs would have made sure this IPA rubbish was pulled down by now. Remember what happened to Emma Alberici’s article a few weeks ago. Can’t take the IPA seriously. It seems to be a holding place for fresh faced young graduates in neoliberal ideology and other assorted fantasies. They only seem to stay at the IPA while waiting to get a real job.

  15. Florence nee Fedup

    Not sure greed is the word. More like envy laced with arrogance & over developed sense of entitlement.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Return to home page