Greens go ‘Robin Hood’ in $514bn big business tax threat to Labor

Big business has attacked the Greens’ proposed tax slug as ‘destructive, naïve and a frontal assault on our financial system’ after Adam Bandt unveiled a populist raid on company profits.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has announced new ‘Robin Hood’ tax reforms at the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Mining and business leaders have attacked Adam Bandt’s $514bn tax slug as “economic sabotage, destructive, naïve and a frontal assault on our financial system” after the Greens unveiled a populist “Robin Hood’’ raid on company profits.

During an address at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Mr Bandt demanded a $514bn tax hit on big business in return for the Greens supporting Labor in a hung parliament, under what the party trumpets as “Robin Hood” reforms targeting miners, coal and gas companies, banks, telcos and retailers.

The left-wing minor party, which is picking off seats from Labor and the Coalition across the country, will take a Big Corporations Tax package to the next election involving a 40 per cent tax on companies’ “excessive profits” to fund new cost-of-living measures.

With the Greens seeking to undermine fossil fuels companies with coal, gas and oil assets, Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable said investment, jobs, competition and economic growth would be smashed by Mr Bandt’s economy wrecking policy.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the Greens tax grab was “simply an attack on the prosperity of everyday Australians who benefit from our companies doing well”.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher also attacked the Greens’ excessive profits tax policy as a “thought bubble” that the minor party would never be held accountable for.

With the Greens pushing to revive Wayne Swan’s dumped mining tax, Ms Constable said “this so-called ‘Robin Hood’ tax plan is nothing more than economic sabotage”.

“These destructive ideas, reheated year after year, would deliver a brutal blow to Australia’s competitive position, undermining investment, jobs, and growth across our critical industries,” Ms Constable said.

“The last thing we need is to destabilise the sector that drives our economy and sustains our future prosperity. The Greens’ latest attempt to punish industries that contribute billions to the national economy and support countless jobs, particularly in regional communities, is reckless and irresponsible.”

Ms Constable warned Labor that after recent deals with the Greens, the Albanese government must “categorically rule out these reckless proposals”.

Mr Willox said the Greens’ proposal to “gouge Australian businesses who do well through investments and products that meet market needs, and provide jobs, is naïve populism pure and simple”.

“Australian workers and retirees who, through their superannuation accounts, invest in our local companies to generate wealth, will also suffer. Unleashed, the Greens would introduce not one but two new taxes on the shareholders of Australian companies: a minerals resource rent tax and an ‘excessive profits’ tax,” Mr Willox said.

“These two new business taxes would reduce the capacity of businesses to employ and invest. They are also and actually a tax on the retirement income of all Australians.”

Senator Gallagher accused the Greens of having a “luxurious position of where they can come out with an idea, but they never have to implement it”.

“They never have to look at the tax system as a whole, they never need to worry about how the economy performs,” Senator Gallagher said.

“We look at the tax system – as you would expect – when we put our budgets together. It has to be thought through and you have to understand the consequences of some of the measures that the Greens come up with. They never, ever have to do that.”

Greens go ‘Robin Hood’ in $514bn big business tax threat to Labor

A Greens list of ASX companies the party claims have “extracted excessive profits over the past decade” includes the big four banks, Wesfarmers, Telstra, Woolworths, Coles, JB Hi-Fi and Ampol.

With polling indicating the Greens and independents are likely to hold the balance of power in the next parliament, The Australian understands Mr Bandt is preparing other major tax strikes on “the rich” to split Labor’s left flank.

The Greens tax slugs, including a coal and mining tax based on former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan’s doomed mining super profits tax, will spook business leaders reeling from the government’s sweeping industrial relations, environmental and climate change reforms and Peter Dutton’s attacks against big business wokeness.

Speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Mr Bandt linked inflation and the cost-of-living crisis to “price gouging” by Australian and multinational corporations that have banked “surging profits”.

He will use projected tax revenue windfalls to underwrite other expensive Greens policies including putting “dental into Medicare, for everybody, because your teeth should be included as basic healthcare”. The Greens took a similar tax hit on billionaires and big corporations to the 2022 election, claiming the revenue would fund free education for all, wipe student debt and cover mental healthcare under Medicare.

As the Greens push for higher taxes and more spending, Labor and the Coalition have pledged to avoid expensive election policies amid a fight over who is more economically responsible.

Mr Dutton on Tuesday accused Labor governments of putting “upward pressure on taxes” and said the Coalition’s economic election policy was focused on identifying budget spending waste to ease inflationary pressures.

“The government keeps pumping money into the economy and if they are wasting money, we’re not going to support those programs,” the Opposition Leader said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week said the government would not engage in a “spendathon” ahead of the election and rejected any consideration of “scorched earth austerity”.

The Greens’ three-pronged Big Corporations Tax includes a 40 per cent tax on excessive profits earned on turnover after the first $100m, a gas and oil tax via changes to the petroleum resource rent tax and a 40 per cent mining tax capturing coal and other mining but excluding lithium and nickel, which are deemed critical to the net zero transition.

Parliamentary Budget Office modelling commissioned by the Greens, based on the underlying cash balance, shows an excessive profits tax could raise about $65bn over the forward estimates, with $22.7bn raised from a coal and mining tax, and $33bn from an oil and gas tax.

The PBO said “there is a high degree of uncertainty” associated with its costings and caution should be taken when interpreting results.

The Greens claim the first plank in their tax big business and billionaires crackdown will raise $514bn over the decade.

Mr Bandt – who is targeting Labor seats at the next federal election in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Western Australia – attacked Labor in his NPC speech for abandoning the mining super profits tax and accused the government of fuelling the cost-of-living crisis by cosying up to big corporations.

“Enough is enough. It’s time to make the big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of tax. This election, the Greens will propose a package of Robin Hood reforms,” he said.

“The aim is simple. To make the big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of tax to make life better for everyone.

“This new Big Corporations Tax would apply to both Australian corporations, and multinational corporations operating in Australia.”

Mr Bandt will use the PRRT overhaul and mining tax as bargaining chips in a hung parliament.

The Greens claim their tax changes, which will be rejected by both Labor and the Coalition, are structured to ensure investment is still incentivised in areas other than fossil fuels and would not affect investment returns for pensioners and superannuation account holders.