Susan Price
According to Business Review Weekly, it's never a bad year to be rich. In fact, 2004 was a great year for the rich in Australia — they got even richer! Not only that, but the growth in wealth of Australia's top 200 richest Australians grew by the largest amount in the 22-year history of BRW's Top 200 list — up by 13% in just one year, bringing their combined wealth to an all-time high of $71.5 billion.
No prizes for guessing who had the largest growth in wealth — Kerry Packer, of course. According to BRW, Packer became $1 billion richer in the last 12 months, bringing his total wealth to $6.5 billion. Returning to the Top 200 again this year were notables such as labour-hire company Skilled Engineering's Frank Hargrave.
New additions to the Top 200 included real estate moguls, mobile phone entrepreneurs such as "Crazy John", and one other new addition: Michael Gordon. Who, you may well ask, is Michael Gordon?
Michael Gordon made his millions in a sector worth some $3-4 billion annually, with returns "strongly supported by federal government subsidies" in a low-risk environment — the childcare sector. Michael Gordon is one half of the partnership which runs Peppercorn Management Group, operating 4100 childcare centres across Australia.
I'm certain that parents working two jobs to cough up the daily $80-plus childcare fees are comforted by the fact that their hard-earned wages are being creamed off by private enterprise, and that the federal government is doing such a good job of looking after the corporate welfare of Peppercorn, thanks to childcare subsidies! Meanwhile, the Australian Council of Social Service estimates that the cost of child care has risen by 25% on average in the last 18 months.
ACOSS also estimates that the gap between the cost of child care to parents and government subsidies ranges from $157 per week (for a family with only one parent employed on $30,000 per year) to anywhere up to $285 per week (for a family with two children and two parents employed at $30,000 per year).
So not only is the family benefit a direct handout to private providers like Peppercorn, parents are struggling to keep their kids in child care because of mounting costs.
Imagine an Australia where there was no need for women to choose between working just enough each week to afford child care, and staying home full-time caring for kids and foregoing employment.
Let's look at the next phase in a child's life — school education. In early July, the ALP voted to support the Coalition's government schools legislation, turning its back on the wishes of teachers' unions and community organisations that had lobbied the ALP heavily only 24 hours earlier. This legislation entrenches the system where private schools receive more government funding than the public education system. Right now, the federal government spends more on private schools than on Australia's public universities.
Once a teenager finishes high school and (perhaps) accesses tertiary education, things don't get any better — they'll join the thousands of students who owe $10 billion in HECS debts, and if they're a woman, they'll be unlikely to ever pay off that debt.
From 2005, they'll be faced with increased HECS fees and most likely an expansion in undergraduate up-front fees. Melbourne University is already considering charging local students up to $210,000 for a medical degree from 2005. And 24 out of the 38 public universities around the country will be raising HECS by 15-25% from next year. The ALP has only pledged to reverse the 25% HECS increase, not abolish the HECS system.
Imagine a society where access to education doesn't depend on your ability to pay, where as a student you don't have to work 20 hours a week part-time to support your full-time study at university. Imagine, as a parent, if those "voluntary" school levies really were voluntary. Imagine if decisions about the courses offered at an institution were not governed by their profitability.
Take the situation at Sydney University, where the nursing school looks destined to be cut entirely. It's no coincidence that nursing is one of the disciplines exempted from HECS increases. Take the recent decision at the University of Western Sydney to rationalise its course offerings — knocking off 2000 courses, and limiting choice for students. Imagine an education system not ruled by economic rationalist principles.
Socialist Alliance does imagine a different, better Australia. We stand for free, quality education from school, to TAFE and university. We oppose up-front fees. We stand for an end to government funding of private schools. We stand for free, quality child care, and for free, quality health care for all.
Are these just pipe dreams today? Just utopian ideas? We don't think so — Australia is a wealthy country, and we need to take back that wealth for the majority.
To fund these policies, we want to take back the wealth of that top 200. Relieve Packer and Co. of that $71.5 billion — wealth created by generations of working people, and wealth ripped off from working people through privatisation and corporate handouts.
We stand for raising corporate taxes — at a minimum to restore them from today's 30% rate to the 1988 rate of 49%. And while we're at it — let's take some of that wealth from the fat cats in parliament, living the good life on their parliamentary salaries, which are four times greater than the average wage.
Socialist Alliance candidates make a pledge — to take a worker's wage and to donate the rest of their salary to build the movements for real social change. This is because we don't just want to kick Howard out. We're not just for a "fairer Australia". We want to get rid of this rotten, profit-driven system once and for all. Power to the millions — not the millionaires!
[Abridged from a speech given to the Socialist Alliance election campaign launch in Sydney on July 11. Susan Price is the Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Sydney.]
From Green Left Weekly, July 21, 2004.
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