The biggest, newest Labor tax revealed
22nd June, 2010
Another chapter in the Rudd Government's tax agenda has been revealed – a giant new tax on almost every company making a profit.Labor’s long-term approach has been unveiled by Treasury secretary, Ken Henry, who called at a tax conference yesterday for the extension of the mining super profits tax to all Australian companies.
It has been reported that any such tax could kick in at profits above as little as 6 percent a year.
The Leader of The Nationals, Warren Truss, said such a tax would send businesses offshore and crash job and investment creation in this country.
“I thought the mining super tax and the emissions trading scheme tax were bad, but this idea is as monumentally foolish as any I’ve ever seen,” Mr Truss said.
“Rudd Labor can’t simply run away from this incredible proposal. Dr Henry was the architect of the mining tax and more than 100 of the 138 new tax proposals in his Henry Tax Review are still waiting for the Government’s tick or cross.
“I don’t think that when Australians voted in a man who called himself ‘an economic conservative’, they thought Kevin Rudd and his Labor team would be re-inventing socialism. But that is what this idea is.
“Why would anyone want to work hard and take all the risks if the Government takes all the profits?
“If this Government stopped wasting money it would have enough to fund better services and better infrastructure. For the Rudd Labor Government, more taxes simply means more waste.
“This is an idea whose time was in 1917 and 1949. In 21st century democratic Australia, the Rudd Government must rule it out today,” Mr Truss said.
