Political leaders in the ACT must categorically rule out supporting any increase to the GST, said UnionsACT today.
Proposals by the Federal Government and the business lobby to increase the GST to 15% would disproportionately impact everyday people and benefit the wealthy. The business lobby is advocating that an increase to the GST should fund cuts to corporate tax rates and personal income tax rates.
Increasing the GST would unfairly impact middle and low income workers and families. Recent modelling by NATSEM shows that low and middle-income households will pay twice as much as the highest-income households.
Australia is a low taxing nation and a low spending country. Tax revenue collected in Australia is below the OECD average, and Australian government spending is the second lowest in the OECD, as a share of GDP.
UnionsACT is strongly opposed to any increase to the GST, and has resolved today to campaign against a GST increase.
While the Federal Government advocates for increasing the GST, it has just passed secrecy measures that exempts 700 private corporations with annual income of more than $100 million from public disclosure of the amount of tax they pay.
Similarly, the Federal Government has taken no action to close company tax loopholes that allow the 200 largest companies in Australia to pay an average of 10% company tax. Local small and medium companies without access to corporate accountants, pay the full 30% company tax rate.
The following statements can be attributed to Alex White, secretary of UnionsACT:
“We are calling on all political leaders in the ACT must categorically rule out any support for an increase to the GST.
“Genuine tax reform must enhance the capacity of governments to fund public services, infrastructure and decent social protections.
“The Government should close loopholes that allow corporations and multi-millionaires to aggressively minimise their tax, before raising the GST.
“Locally, unions will be campaigning actively to ensure that the tax debate focuses on fairness and equity.”
