‘Economic sabotage:’ Greens’ tax bid lashed

A Greens’ proposal for a Robin Hood tax to target the “excessive profits” of Australia’s largest companies has been lashed as “economic sabotage” and “cheapskate politics”.

Leader Adam Bandt unveiled the minor party’s three-pronged Big Corporations Tax policy in an address to the National Press Club on Wednesday, months out from a federal election due by May next year.

The proposed policy would hit major companies with a 40 per cent tax on excessive profits of more than $100m, and target the likes of the big four banks, supermarket giants and telcos.

The remaining two arms aims to close the “loopholes left behind by Labor” in the existing petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) in the gas and oil sector, and slap 40 per cent tax concession on the “super-profits” in the coal and mining sector.

While the plan was budgeted by the Parliamentary Budget Office to loosely bring in $514bn over the next decade, the independent office warned the modelling relied on a “high degree of uncertainty”.

Business groups say it would devastate Australia’s economy and was unrealistic.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry boss Andrew McKellar said the “irresponsible” policy “born of ignorance and formed in a vacuum”.

“It discourages international investment, it would mean that industries which are critical to our export success are being damaged and being undermined,” he told NewsWire.

“In fact, it would also undermine our ability to service our energy requirements in the future.

“It would destroy investment and jobs in Australia, that’s the practical outcome of what they’re suggesting.”

Mr McKellar said it was an example of “cheapskate politics” that had “no connection with reality”.

“If people take a moment to analyse the practical impact of what’s been said and understand the fundamental damage it would do to personal economic security, they would understand it is ignorance and economic vandalism,” he said.

Mineral Council of Australia’s chief executive Tania Constable said the “destructive” plan was “nothing more than economic sabotage” and would “deliver a brutal blow to Australia’s competitive position, undermining investment, jobs and growth across our critical industries”.

She said the policies affecting the mining sector would be particularly detrimental to Australia’s role in the global clean energy transition.

“The last thing we need is to destabilise the sector that drives our economy and sustains our future prosperity,” she said.

“The Greens’ latest attempt to punish industries that contribute billions to the national economy and support countless jobs, particularly in regional communities, is reckless and irresponsible.

Speaking at the NPC, Mr Bandt defended the plan, saying the tax concession could be used to fund cost-of-living measures, including expanding Medicare to include dental care.

“We have designed this to ensure there’s still continued investment,” he said.

“We’re just saying when you make these huge profits, do what other countries do and give a bit of it back to the public because that’s who you’re making the money off.”

In a clear election pitch, he vowed the Greens would become the “party of renters, the party of first-home buyers, and the party of mortgage holders,” with voters becoming disillusioned with the “political class”.

However, support for the plan was quickly ruled out by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who dashed the tax grab as a “Greens policy designed to get attention”.

“The Greens, their primary task is to make up numbers and put out press releases,” he said.

“We actually have to run the place, run the economy and run the country, and that means taking a responsible and methodical approach to policy.”