Greens in push to slug rich to boost the dole

Richard Di Natale will announce a plan to slug high-income earners to fund a $75-a-week increase in unemployment benefits.

Greens Leader Senator Dr Richard Di Natale plans to tax high-income earners a total of $10.5 billion to fund a $75-a-week increase in unemployment benefits.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale will today announce a plan to slug high-income earners a total of $10.5 billion to fund a $75-a-week increase in unemployment benefits.

The move is part of a set of new tax policies including a ­revival of Labor’s failed super-profits tax on miners.

Speaking at a social security conference in Sydney, Senator Di Natale will outline the plan — costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office — to impose a minimum average tax rate of 35 per cent on earnings above $300,000 a year, which would affect the top 0.5 per cent of ­taxpayers.

“Restricting the tax deductions for 45,000 people could pay for a new quality of life for 838,000 Australians,” he said.

Known as a “Buffet rule” in reference to US billionaire Warren Buffett, who said it was wrong his tax rate was lower than his ­assistant’s, the proposed minimum rate would curb high-income earners’ scope to deduct expenses against their income, which at present is taxed at 47c in the dollar including the Medicare Levy.

“You’d struggle to find people out there on the street behind you who would disagree with that proposal, but because of ­entrenched interests, we struggle to find anyone in our parliament who will make it happen,” he said.

Smarting from a 6.3 per cent swing against the Greens in the Wentworth by-election, Senator Di Natale ramped up rhetoric against the “dangerous path” of letting corporations “with a legal requirement to maximise their own profits” run public services.

“From scams to scandals, fraud and poverty, to a bio­diversity crisis and a climate breakdown, the consequences are being felt everywhere and by everyone,” he said.

This Greens policy proposal follows others to establish a public bank to fund infrastructure, increasing the top marginal tax rate by two percentage points, the creation of a government-run electricity retailer, and payment of a “universal basic income” to everyone, estimated to cost $250bn a year.

Senator Di Natale said the Greens would reintroduce Labor’s super-profits tax, which contributed to the end of Kevin Rudd’s prime ministership in 2010. Recast as a mineral ­resource rent tax in 2011 by Julia Gillard, it was repealed by the Abbott government in 2013, having raised less than a tenth of the promised revenue.