Harvey Norman’s record profits show the need to make big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of tax, the Greens say.

“Harvey Norman is making super profits while millions of workers are trying to make ends meet in lockdown,” Greens Economic Justice spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

“Paying back some of the JobKeeper they took is a drop in the bucket compared to the massive dividends Gerry Harvey has paid himself and other shareholders."

"Harvey Norman only paid back part of JobKeeper, and only after being publicly named and shamed."

The Greens have labelled it ‘Labor’s great leap rightwards’ as the ALP drops progressive policies like negative gearing and public dental while moving to support the Liberal’s radical right-wing flat tax policy. 

New costings by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office revealed this week show an incredible gender and income bias in the benefit of proposed stage 3 tax cuts (full tables below):

Costings by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office reveal an incredible gender and income bias in the benefit of proposed stage 3 tax cuts.

New costings by the Parliamentary Budget Office reveal the extreme inequality of stage 3 tax cuts, which give as much to the top 1% of income earners as the bottom 60%.

The cuts have been calculated at costing the budget bottom line a staggering $184.2 billion over ten years, enough to fund putting dental into Medicare, start building high speed rail from Brisbane to Melbourne and the construction of 1 million affordable homes.

Key points from the PBO costing:

The Greens have slammed Labor's reported capitulation on Stage 3 Tax Cuts, saying the resolution to back the Liberals and not repeal the unfair tax breaks for Australia's rich will turbocharge economic inequality and the money would be better spent on social services instead.

With the next election on a knife-edge, Adam Bandt MP says the Greens in balance of power will push for Stage 3 tax cuts to be repealed and a new tax to be imposed on billionaires.

Quotes attributable to Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt MP:

The Australian Greens have slammed the government’s changes to support measures for the NSW lockdown, saying that the paltry concessions are a wasted opportunity that will leave people in poverty and risk further evictions. 

Despite acknowledging that existing support levels are too low, the additional scraps announced this afternoon are too narrow, and too miserly to protect people.

The Australian Greens have used their Budget in Reply speech to announce a new tax on extreme profiteering by billionaires during the pandemic.  
The new tax, which only applies to the 122 richest Australians, will raise $29 billion. It will be taxed on the amount their wealth increased between March 2020 and March 2021.