Leigh Sales suggests billionaires should not be taxed more

The ABC 7.30 host has come under fire on social media for suggesting billionaires shouldn’t be taxed more under a Greens plan.

Punters have reacted angrily to a suggestion from the ABC’s Leigh Sales that increasing taxes for billionaires is a bad idea.

Sales was talking with Greens Leader Adam Bandt on the national broadcaster’s 7.30 program on Wednesday night when she raised the party’s proposed billionaire’s tax.

The proposal includes introducing a Corporate Super-Profits Tax of 40 per cent on big corporations, an annual 6 per cent wealth tax on billionaires and a crackdown on multinational tax avoidance.

Sales said the idea could backfire if it discourages billionaires from using their wealth philanthropically.

“The Greens are proposing a billionaires’ tax where people earning huge incomes would face an extra 6 per cent tax,” she said.

“But many of those 131 people would already be some of the country’s biggest donors to charity, some of the biggest philanthropic givers.

“If you tax them more, then they have less to immediately give to the causes they support which has a big flow-on effect to major charitable organisations and (also) wouldn’t their direct charitable spending be a more efficient and sort of, I guess, direct use of their resources than having it siphoned through government and then reallocated?”

Leigh Sales suggested a proposed billionaire’s tax might stop them donating to charities. Picture: ABC

But Bandt pushed back, telling her that billionaires in Australia “made out like bandits” during the pandemic.

“Billionaires in Australia during the pandemic, while everyone else was doing it tough, increased their wealth faster than billionaires in any other country in the world,” he said.

“Mining billionaires more than doubled their wealth. We’re saying, ‘they’re doing all right’.

“They’ll still be billionaires after the billionaires tax is imposed. They’ll still have that money, if they want to donate it, they can do it.

“By putting a 6 per cent tax on their wealth over a billion dollars, we generate money you can use to fund things like getting dental in Medicare.

“It’s about paying their fair share of tax, as far as the corporations are concerned, we have a situation in Australia where one in three of the biggest corporations pays no tax.

“When a nurse pays more tax than a multinational, something is wrong. A lot of the donations that these big corporations and billionaires make are to the Liberal and Labor parties.

“That’s why we’ve got a tax system that lets them off the hook and asks everybody else to pay the burden.”

Viewers were somewhat bemused by the suggestion that billionaires should not face additional taxes.

“This question (from Sales) is absolutely bizarre,” one wrote on social media.

“Adam was really too kind while somehow keeping a straight face and hitting the thing out of the proverbial park. But at least it was good of Leigh Sales to let us know just where she stands politically.”

Australian journalist and host of ABC’s 7:30, Leigh Sales. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Another wrote that Sales’ question sounded like “satire”.

“Leigh Sales suggesting that taxing billionaires at a higher rate is a bad idea because they will donate less to charities,” the viewer wrote.

“Journalism in Australia has become so utterly absurd it just feels like satire now.”

The Greens website outlines why the proposal is one of the party’s priorities.

“During the pandemic, billionaire Kerry Stokes made over $570 million,” the website reads.

“His companies took millions in corporate welfare like JobKeeper, and cut workers’ wages. “Meanwhile, Stokes bought a new jet. At the same time, millions of people lost their jobs.

“More women lost jobs than men, and did more unpaid work. A third of young people went jobless.

“Before the pandemic, billionaires and big corporations had too much power. Now, this special treatment is out of control. To turn around this growing inequality, and the climate crisis, we have to fight for our future.”

Originally published as Leigh Sales suggests billionaires should not be taxed more