Tax ‘greedy’ rich people more: Dick Smith

Dick Smith has shared a surprising take as one of the country’s wealthiest people, calling on “greedy” rich Aussies to pay up.

Dick Smith has shared a surprisingly refreshing take as one of the country’s richest people, calling on his fellow ultra-wealthy Australians to pay more tax.

Speaking with 2GB on Tuesday, the Aussie businessman called billionaires “some of the greediest people” and said rich Australians, including himself, “can and should pay more”.

“The country needs money. It’s a fantastic country, it’s got incredible education, roads and military, everything, and it needs money to pay for that,” Mr Smith told the station.

“We’re into great debt, and we should be paying that debt off and not letting our kids do it in the future.”

Mr Smith proposed a change to the tax system, calling on the richest 15 per cent of the population to pay 15 per cent more – bringing their rate to about 60 per cent.

Dick Smith shared the surprising take that rich Aussies like him should pay more tax. Picture: Richard Dobson

“Wealthy people like me, I’m in the 1 per cent group that has the same amount of money as the 17 million Australians who are typical wage earners, and I’ve always said we could pay a bit more tax,” he said.

“I don’t believe we should be targeting mums and dads. I think there’s possibly a chance for the typical wage earner to pay less tax, but I can tell you wealthy people like me can easily pay more.

“We have 100 billionaires in this country, they are some of the greediest people out. Only 15 per cent are known as philanthropists and a lot of these billionaires just complain constantly about the tax they have to pay when they can easily afford it.”

Mr Smith criticised the likes of Kerry Packer – who famously said, “There is nothing wrong with minimising tax … If anybody in this country doesn’t minimise their tax they want their head read” – and called on Australians to be proud of the tax they pay.

Mr Smith said Australians should be proud of the tax they pay.

“There are plenty of people around, especially wage earners who are listening to this, who pay their tax and know that they have to pay tax because we do incredible things with it. It’s an incredible country,” he told the station.

Mr Smith was reluctant to comment on the most recent tax change, with Labor proposing to double the concessional tax rate for super balances of more than $3 million.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese initially said the change would impact just 0.5 per cent of Australians, but last week it was revealed the cap would not be indexed for inflation. By 2050, one-in-ten Aussies will be paying the higher rate, according to the government’s own numbers.

“Let’s make it (the cap) five million then, or new governments can come in and we’ll vote governments in which can reduce tax when necessary. All I’m saying is wealthy people … could pay a bit more,” Mr Smith said.

He did, however, weigh in on the $544 million super fund, joining the list of rich Australians who insist the mammoth fund doesn’t belong to them.

“That’s a ridiculous amount of money. You don’t actually need $500 million to retire,” he said. “It wasn’t me. I have nothing like that.”

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