Anglicare have recently released a report on the extent of wealth inequality in Australia, and their proposed solutions to the problem.
The extent of wealth inequality: the top 10% of households own 45% of all wealth. This means the other 90% of households own the remaining 55%. The gap is getting wider as we speak.
The proposed solutions: adjustments to capital gains tax, abolition of negative gearing, abolition of franking credits.
Hold your horses, Anglicare. Haven’t we heard all this before? Wasn’t it part of the platform of the guy in the above photograph when he ran for the office of Prime Minister back in May 2019? His name is Bill Shorten.
He was clobbered in the election he was expected to win, people choosing instead that disastrous fraud Scott Morrison. So, it appears the electorate has no appetite for the reforms Anglicare is recommending. Certainly, the current Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is not ready to get behind them.
I voted for Shorten, despite my owning shares with franking credits. I was happy to take a financial haircut, knowing that wealth equality in our country was more important than my personal finances. Everybody benefits from living in a community where wealth equality is a goal, where the ‘fair go’ is valued. For me, this loss of personal wealth would have hurt, but would not break the bank.
Others were not so generous in their motives. I have heard there are people who could not wait to lodge their tax returns in 2019 so that they could get their hands on these franking credits, even though the didn’t actually own shares far less shares of the franked variety. These people, ignorant and greedy, would – I suspect – not have voted for Shorten.
It’s not my intention to signal my virtue here, but I sometimes wonder if the day will come when people will take into account community concerns when making decisions, rather than be driven by pure greed.