Comment by Sue Boland
Most Labor Party voters at the last election hoped that the ALP would resist the Coalition agenda.
Instead, the Labor "opposition" is preparing a deal with the government to pass its package of corporate tax cuts. The government plans to cut the company tax rate from 36% to 30% and halve the rate at which capital gains are taxed.
The treasurer, Peter Costello, and the shadow treasurer, Simon Crean, have been meeting to discuss the tax cuts. A spokesperson for Costello was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald on October 22 as saying, "We welcome Labor's apparent desire to support business tax reform".
On October 20 the Business Council for Tax Reform (BCTR) called on the government to work with the Labor Party to create bipartisan support for tax "reform".
On the same day, Crean stated, "We [the ALP] have called for bipartisanship on business tax for months now. It is pleasing the government has conceded, at least on the surface, the importance of such an approach. The treasurer and I had a useful meeting."
Then, on October 21, the ALP announced that it would support the government's corporate tax package in its entirety as long as it was revenue neutral.
The government and Treasury are likely to oblige with appropriate fig leaves in the form of reworked economic modelling and some minimal tax avoidance measures so that the ALP can agree to pass the corporate tax package through the Senate.
Unfortunately, there has been no public opposition to the corporate tax cuts from any prominent trade union leader, despite the fact that it is workers who will pay for the cuts.
Perhaps they don't realise that the corporate tax cuts will be paid for with increased taxes on workers and reduced public services, or perhaps they have bought the line from the ALP that increased profits will eventually trickle down to workers.
It is folly to think that increased corporate profits will eventually benefit workers. All of the big companies, including Telstra, that have recently announced massive profits have stated that they intend to continue job-shedding.
The corporate tax cuts are against the interests of workers, students, pensioners and the unemployed and should be opposed.
Trade unionists need to call on their unions to oppose the corporate tax cuts by passing the following motion:
"That [union name] calls on the ALP and other non-government parties in the Senate to reject any cut in the company tax rate or the capital gains tax rate.
"Such tax cuts will result in cuts to our public services and social security or higher taxes on workers, leading to a further transfer of wealth from working people to corporations and the wealthiest people in our society."
If your union passes this motion, please fax copies to Melanie Sjoberg on (02) 96901381 or e-mail to <m_sjoberg@hotmail.com>.