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In Australia, we have always looked to America for ideas and inspiration. Indeed, our business community models itself on the US via importing their CEOs and MBAs. The push from the big end of town and the LNP Coalition is, invariably, toward making this nation more like the USA. Former PM Tony Abbott tried to privatise higher education, thankfully, unsuccessfully. The Libs have wanted to kill off Medicare for some 50+ years, again, thankfully, without success. Peter Dutton, the unseated former Liberal leader of the opposition, brought out Donald Trump’s campaign director downunder to assist with the last federal election. This proved not to be a great idea for Peter and the party.
Australia Looking To America
I mention the Trump link to the Coalition, here in Australia, because if we want to see where unrestrained neoliberalism takes you Trump’s America is on display for all the world. Privatising everything is a recipe for corruption and kleptocracy. Donald Trump’s big bill, just passed by Congress, will strip hundreds of billions from things like Medicaid and deliver large tax cuts to the wealthy. Government services have been stripped by DOGE, under the guise of economic efficiencies. Donald Trump is a proven compulsive liar over decades and leopards do not change their spots. The real push here is to privatise social security. The billionaire oligarchs making up the Trump cabinet are lining up to line their pockets via these massive changes to how the US is run.
Rich & Powerful People Don’t Want To Pay Tax
The Republican Party in the US has led the way in reducing the tax burden on the rich and powerful. Since the 1960s, when the top income tax rate in America was some 90%, now, it has been reduced down to 37% and company tax rates have been substantially lowered at the same time. The US is in debt to the tune of $37 trillion – this is largely because of the wealthy not paying their fair share of tax. The nation has been ripped off by the greed and irresponsibility of billionaires and their co-conspirators in Congress and the White House. The facts and figures are indisputable. We see a similar push from the big end of town downunder to lower the company tax rate. Their rationale is that it will encourage investment and that many other leading economies have done it. There is no data backing up their claims about lower tax rates stimulating investment. The other nations have merely copied the US via the influence of America amid the multinational business world. Rich and powerful people and organisations do not want to pay their fair share of tax. We have always looked to America and this aspect of it poisons the well.
The Market Doesn’t Always Deliver What’s Best
America remains a role model for Australia, only now it is testament to where we don’t want to end up. Private interests, unrestrained by government are not to the good of the nation. The tenets of neoliberalism are, ultimately, based on lies and falsehoods. There are things in life not best served by the greed of the market. Health is a clear example of this in Australia in contrast with the expensive and unfair American private health system. Housing has become an illustration of a sector where the market has failed Australians. Unaffordable homes to buy or rent are robbing ordinary Aussies of a fair and reasonable expectation of a good life. Big companies like the banks have fed on huge amounts of inflation in the residential property market in Australia – they don’t call it inflation but what is it when prices go up and up for the same product? Too much money chasing a limited supply guarantees inflation.
Screwing Ordinary Aussies Via Superannuation
We have always looked to America and tempered the local application of what we see for Australian conditions. The extremist nature of right wing Americans, who emerged out of a history of enslaving others, does not sit well with most Australians. Donald Trump is no hero to the majority downunder, only to those Anglo-settler sons and daughters who retain their racism and conceptions of white supremacy. Thankfully, they are a small minority in 2025. Corporates not paying their fair share of tax is a real problem downunder, with a third of companies here paying no tax. Rich people and companies shifting profits to tax free shelters and hiding assets in family trusts are robbing the nation of tens of billions of dollars every year. Superannuation, which was an ALP designed scheme to provide retirement income for Australian workers, has been distorted by former Lib PM John Howard to become a bolthole for the wealthy to hide their money from the tax office. No limits were ever set on how much money you could stash in your super and there are some with hundreds of millions. It is highly suspicious that the boffins and politicians dealing with superannuation laws would not have known what setting no limits would produce. This is macro corruption.
“More than 1,200 large companies paid no tax in 2022-23, an Australian Taxation Office (ATO) report reveals.”
“Qantas, Virgin, Netflix and Canva among 1,200 major companies that paid no income tax in Australia in 2022-23”
“Third, many multinational groups with subsidiary companies in other countries are focused on minimising their worldwide income tax bill. This usually means shifting taxable profits (taxable income) to low company-tax rate countries and away from high company-tax-rate countries. “
American Excellence
Yes, Americans gamed the system by originating their multinational corporations profit shifting from places like Australia to tax shelters like Ireland and the Virgin Islands. Funnily enough the Virgin Islands was where sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein had his island, here he took young girls to be sold to billionaires and elites for illicit sex. Financiers like to feel that they are above the laws, whether it be tax laws or laws around exploiting children for sexual gratification.
“None other than James Packer, son of the late, great anti-tax champion, billionaire Kerry Packer, is warning that AI will decimate tax revenue downunder. Why? It is because Australia depends upon the income tax from workers for the lion’s share of its tax revenue. AI has already started shedding jobs in middle management and the numbers are going to ramp up substantially very soon. The loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs to machines will impact the bottom line severely. Especially, as multinational corporations and rich people avoid paying tax in Australia.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
©MidasWord
