It is Tuesday night and I have had a very hard day with my business which STILL, after almost two months, is having problems with Telstra and the NBN.
It’s been so stressful I have avoided looking at politics while I try to deal with it.
But today I have seen/read two things which I cannot let pass.
Jennifer Westacott, head of the Business Council of Australia, when asked about our tax treaty with the US which will see billions transferred to their budget bottom line should we cut company tax rates, said “there is a huge body of evidence that says lowering our business tax rate is good for our economy, it will increase GDP by 1 per cent – which is $16 billion in today’s terms – this will flow through to workers, this will flow through to higher paid jobs.”
She is talking about a very questionable forecast using unrealistic assumptions and unsubstantiated benefits a decade down the track which in NO way equates with the revenue we will forego in our attempt to pander even more to big business.
JENNIFER WESTACOTT: A $4 billion increase to government revenues.
STEPHEN LONG: Chris Richardson has said there will be $16 billion lost in government revenue a year, once this fully flows through. The modelling from Treasury, from Chris Murphy, from Independent Economics who advised treasury, all shows that you’ll have significant cuts to revenue and that will either have to be made up by new taxes or cutting the government spending and the modelled gains come in the very long run.
JENNIFER WESTACOTT: But what’s the alternative? That you leave the company tax rate as an incredibly uncompetitive rate, in which case you do not give businesses who employ 10 million Australians a chance to compete in a very difficult global economy.
I will tell you the alternative Jennifer. If the companies you represent actually paid the tax they were supposed to then we wouldn’t have to worry. As it is, most of them pay nowhere near 30% and lots of them pay nothing. I would also point out that the company tax rate in the US is substantially higher than ours. Excuse my lack of sympathy.
Then I watched the Drum which aired a very disturbing discussion about advice given by a Melbourne school counsellor to bullied students and their parents which asked them to consider if the bullied child actually contributed to the problem by being a “whinger” etc.
Amanda Vanstone gave her usual steamroller advice of “don’t be a victim” whilst admitting she has been bullied all her life.
Well Amanda, not everyone is as strong as you. Not everyone has the hide of a rhinoceros where bullying can be brushed off. Not everyone has a ready-made platform to air their side of an argument in a public arena.
Instead of berating people for “playing the victim”, perhaps you need to stop blaming the victim.
I am so sick of people who are so self-focused that they find it impossible to understand the consequences for people who aren’t them.
