above: Morrison's Tax Cuts will lead to over $20 billion in austerity every year
Dr Tristan Ewins
Figures in the ALP - even including Senior
figures in the Left - are rationalising
the decision to back the hugely regressive Morrison income tax cuts in the final
instance. The rationale (given by senior
Left figure, Kosmos Samaras) is that
workers do not begrudge the wealthy a tax cut, even though they do begrudge an
increase in Newstart. He concedes it
reluctantly, calling it “confronting". For many adapting
to the mindset of these people (including ‘working class Tories’) is more
urgent than actually trying to win the argument. Or winning those people over on
balance on other issues - despite their prejudices.
So now Labor has gone so far as to pass the
controversial ‘Phase Three’: which moves
us towards a ‘flat tax’ with those in $45,000 to $200,000 all on the same rate.
This is worse than Blairism ; This is
capitulating to Thatcherism.
Now the Median wage (ie: middle income) is only approximately $53,000 a year. Though If you ONLY take FULL TIME wages that equates to $65,577 a year.
If people on undoubtedly high incomes do not
pay their fair share of tax how will the social wage survive - let alone expand?
If the ALP does not stand for the social
wage what does it stand for? Without the social wage Labor utterly turns its back on the Whitlam legacy. And at least Hawke gave us Medicare.
If we effectively back a flat tax we may as well
not exist.
Labor lost the recent election for many reasons. Clive Palmer's money. A
deceitful tax scare campaign on ‘retiree taxes’ and ‘death taxes’ that were
nowhere on Labor’s radar. A failure to communicate complex policies. Media
bias. A 'flat' performance by Shorten in the final days.
What this shows it that we need to be careful how we frame our next
Campaign. Simpler but still progressive tax reform. Rescind phase three and
increase progressive tax by somewhere between 1% to 1.5% of GDP. Include a
progressively structured Medicare Levy increase. Make the connection between the tax
reform and the social insurance/social wage reforms we want to make. Aged Care
Insurance, Medicare Dental, Child Care. Keep on emphasising we're only talking
1% to 1.5% of GDP. Sell the ideas of social wage, collective consumption,
social insurance.
Also: Attack the Liberals relentlessly. Push them hard on the need for
cuts under their plan and where the cuts will come from. Use relatively simple
negative and positive ideas and slogans - that will 'cut through'.
As for bracket creep ; after adjusting for fairness we need to index the
lower brackets. And when the Libs say 'politics of envy' - don't just take it -
fight back. $95 billion of cuts over five years is massive. It's not 'envy' ;
it's about justice and it's about survival. Emphasise that lower and middle
income earners are $53,000/year and under taking the median as a guide.
(or again: approx $65,000 if you’re only considering full time workers)
When we cut taxes for people on $100,000, $200,000 and higher - we are
cutting health, education, aged care, and the social safety net. Make sure
everyone understands this. And also people on lower thresholds are paying
proportionately more of the tax burden. Which is the point. (ie: towards a
'Flat Tax')
These days even The Age is beating the Liberal drum relentlessly. But if
we become a Party that no longer sets agendas ; but rather REACTS and
capitulates to media spin campaigns - we may as well give in. You're basically
saying 'Blair was Right'. And that the cause of a genuine Centre-Left is
hopeless. But even Blair *increased* tax
modestly for his programs. A flat tax is
closer to Thatcher than Blair.
If deregistering unions becomes 'popular' do we give in to that too?
We can make tactical and strategic changes without full on capitulation.
I made the argument thereafter
that if workers support the Morrison tax changes it is because they don't
understand what it will cost them in the long run. And the ALP wasn’t making
that case very strongly either.
For Samaras this was being ‘patronising’ to workers ; and he retorted “yes,
those poor uneducated workers.” The
implication is that he thinks workers backing the cuts know exactly what they’re
supporting.
This was my response:
So you're saying people understand Medicare, welfare, public health, schools,
public infrastructure, universities, the ABC - are going to be slashed ; and
they think a tax cut of maybe $10,000 a year or more for someone on
$150,000/year is the better option?
People are immersed in popular culture. A Current Affair inciting hatred
against the unemployed and unions. The Herald-Sun selling the narrative of the
'everyman ScoMo'. Yes, there are working class Tories out there. But even
still: we have to actively contest the argument. The Liberals will govern against most workers’
interests, and we need to communicate that.
And somehow begin the work of rebuilding an outlook of solidarity.
I’m no Leninist, but it’s interesting to consider what he had to say
here. Before the meaning of 'social democracy' shifted Lenin pointed out the
need to impart 'social democratic consciousness' ; but that this did not arise
'organically' from the class struggle, but had to come from the revolutionary
party.
Today we have very little left in the way of a class struggle compared
with the past. The Accord had something to do with it. So did
deindustrialisation. So we don't have class consciousness among many, let alone
'social democratic consciousness'.
That said, an old style vanguard party is not the answer. We need a mass
party. But a mass party which – like a
vanguard party – is capable of leading, mobilising and educating. And is complemented by sympathetic social movements
which it builds strong ties with.
Social Media is a 'leveler' ; but the Conservatives dominate the old
media. Over the long term the decline of traditional media will strengthen our
hand. If we don't completely roll over into a Party of Liberalism in the
interim.
Samaras suggested I was being 'patronising' ; but remember a lot of
workers voted for Hitler too. Would it be 'patronising' to say they were wrong?
A lot of working people are convinced by the tabloid propaganda. Again, if
deregistering the CFMMEU becomes 'popular' do we back that? Or do we fight back
; actively strategizing with everything we've got?
Yes people got it wrong. No, they didn't fully understand the
implications of voting Tory. They don't know what over $20 billion in cuts a
year will look like. Van Badham of The Guardian supposes that before too long that will escalate to a figure of $40 billion. (there's a likely recession, and the mindless drive for a surplus 'no matter what") It's partly our fault for not making enough of an issue of
it. Our job is to expose that social cost. And when it comes to the next
election oppose Phase 3. Which alone will cost over $200 billion
across a decade after inflation. (more if you accept Van Badham's assumptions)
So for those who think it's a good idea to back the tax cuts how about
you explain where you think they should make the Budget cuts.
Jacquie Lambie has also totally sold out ; backing the shift towards a
flat tax in return for just over $150 million in relief for public
housing debts.
Samaras again backed Lambie on the basis that public housing was a crucial
issue in Tasmania , and the money would assist the homeless. Their circumstances are desperate ; and
no-one is saying nothing should be done.
But with the money forgone from the tax cuts (for just one year) we
could provide Lambie with that money much more than 100 times over. Whatever relief the vulnerable get from this,
other vulnerable people will pay down the track more than 100 times over in the
space of just one year by the time Phase 3 kicks in. And after that the vulnerable get nothing.
Many people who think about and understand the consequences of this will
end up voting Greens or other Left groups out of desperation unless Labor gets
it together and commits unambiguously to rescind Phase 3 upon re-taking
government. (The legislation re: Phase Three is not due to take effect until 2024)
For those who agree to let the tax cuts to go through instead of
addressing aged care, dental, childcare: how about saying EXACTLY where you
want Morrison to make the cuts? More
than $20 billion a year is a LOT of money. It's not enough to say 'cut red
tape'. Frontline services will be damaged critically.
And before anyone attacks me: We are coming within a cat's whisker of a
Flat Tax. And that is the politics of
Thatcherism. 'Politics' is about
'political capital' ; and progressives who are about social and distributive
justice - not just identity politics - will see this as a betrayal. It could
colour peoples' idea of Labor for years if not decades.
That’s what we should have thought of before we voted for this package ; even if some people have the intention of trying to revisit the issue come the next election. No doubt ‘pragmatists’ will try and head any such move off in any case when the time comes.
That’s what we should have thought of before we voted for this package ; even if some people have the intention of trying to revisit the issue come the next election. No doubt ‘pragmatists’ will try and head any such move off in any case when the time comes.
Albo is leading the ALP to the right in order to rectify the mistaken turn the Party took toward what the conservatives labelled as "class war" during the last election. The capitalist and landlord classes are engaged in a struggle to gain more and more control over the collective product of labour and they're succeeding partially through the changes to the tax system. Gone are the days when the leader of the FPLP would point to the massive loopholes in the tax system which allow multinationals to park their profits in low taxing areas of the planet. Gone are the days of even speaking of the necessity to change the rules. Instead, we face a leadership determined to discipline militant unionism by expelling one of its chief advocates from the Party.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, careerists in the ALP bureaucracy are quavering lest they utter a word of what could be framed as "disunity" for, as we know, disunity is death and when one's job depends on unity at all costs, one keeps one's mouth shut.