GREENS SLAM LABOR FOR ANNOUNCING NEXT PUBLIC HOUSING DEMOLITION BEFORE GIVING ANY EVIDENCE TO JUSTIFY THE FIRST TOWERS
2024-09-20
greens.org.au
The Victorian Greens have slammed the Victorian Labor government for announcing the next public housing towers to be demolished, just days after claiming they had no evidence to back up the demolition of the first towers at North Melbourne and Flemington.

Today the Victorian Labor government announced that they’re targeting the towers and low-rise communities in Richmond as part of the next stage of their disastrous plan to demolish and privatise all 44 public housing towers in Victoria.

It comes just a few days after the Victorian Labor government told the courts they had no documents to back up their decision to demolish and privatise the first towers at North Melbourne and Flemington.

Today also marks the one year anniversary of the Victorian Labor government’s Housing Statement, with the state of housing only worsening since then with rents soaring across Victoria and the list of people on the public housing waitlist ballooning.

The Greens MP for Richmond, Gabrielle de Vietri said that this plan is only going to make the housing crisis worse and that it’s outrageous that Labor is steamrolling ahead without providing a shred of evidence to back it up.

Quotes attributable to Greens MP for Richmond, Gabrielle de Vietri:

“Just days ago Labor admitted that they have no evidence to back up the first demolitions and now they’re steamrolling forward to destroy the next community. This disastrous plan is only going to make the housing crisis worse for everybody.

“Labor is gaslighting us about this plan. It’s never been about providing more homes for Victorians and it’s certainly never been about the residents - all this is about is handing over prime real estate to their property developer mates for massive profits.

“Once again Labor has thrown public housing residents under the bus today. If Labor listened to the residents in Richmond - or any of the towers - for just one second, they’d hear that they don’t want to leave, they don’t want their homes torn down and their communities ripped apart.

“There are over 120,000 people on the public housing waitlist and that number continues to soar. Yet Labor wants to tear down 7000 public homes in the worst housing crisis in living memory and then won’t even show us the receipts.”

Of course, Labor needs to raise revenue after the covid years but the greens act all holier than thou and never take practicalities into account.

greens are wreckers and neoliberals and opportunists. I despise them.

whiteknight wrote on Sep 21^st, 2024 at 11:31am:

GREENS SLAM LABOR FOR ANNOUNCING NEXT PUBLIC HOUSING DEMOLITION BEFORE GIVING ANY EVIDENCE TO JUSTIFY THE FIRST TOWERS 2024-09-20 greens.org.au The Victorian Greens have slammed the Victorian Labor government for announcing the next public housing towers to be demolished, just days after claiming they had no evidence to back up the demolition of the first towers at North Melbourne and Flemington. Today the Victorian Labor government announced that they’re targeting the towers and low-rise communities in Richmond as part of the next stage of their disastrous plan to demolish and privatise all 44 public housing towers in Victoria. It comes just a few days after the Victorian Labor government told the courts they had no documents to back up their decision to demolish and privatise the first towers at North Melbourne and Flemington. Today also marks the one year anniversary of the Victorian Labor government’s Housing Statement, with the state of housing only worsening since then with rents soaring across Victoria and the list of people on the public housing waitlist ballooning. The Greens MP for Richmond, Gabrielle de Vietri said that this plan is only going to make the housing crisis worse and that it’s outrageous that Labor is steamrolling ahead without providing a shred of evidence to back it up. Quotes attributable to Greens MP for Richmond, Gabrielle de Vietri: “Just days ago Labor admitted that they have no evidence to back up the first demolitions and now they’re steamrolling forward to destroy the next community. This disastrous plan is only going to make the housing crisis worse for everybody. “Labor is gaslighting us about this plan. It’s never been about providing more homes for Victorians and it’s certainly never been about the residents - all this is about is handing over prime real estate to their property developer mates for massive profits. “Once again Labor has thrown public housing residents under the bus today. If Labor listened to the residents in Richmond - or any of the towers - for just one second, they’d hear that they don’t want to leave, they don’t want their homes torn down and their communities ripped apart. “There are over 120,000 people on the public housing waitlist and that number continues to soar. Yet Labor wants to tear down 7000 public homes in the worst housing crisis in living memory and then won’t even show us the receipts.”

Labor are fully committed to the post-Thatcher low tax, balanced budget orthodoxy of mainstream economics.

[Listen to parliament; Chalmers keeps crowing he has 'reduced the deficit, reduced taxes and created government surpluses'].

Which means they must reduce government spending, to eliminate government debt.

Keynes knew better: "If you (ie the currency-issuing government) can build it, you can afford it".

Unfortunately the Greens aren't interested in teaching the public about deficit spending; they think just talking about public housing without explaining how the government can pay for it - a tricky lesson** - will win them enough votes to influence government policy re public housing. 

But it won't, because the mainstream press keep banging on about 'balanced budgets' - relying on the false  perception  a currency-issuing government's budget is subject to the same debt constraints as private household budgets (you and me).

[State governments aren't currency-issuers, so the federal Treasury needs to be involved in managing state debt].

Which explains why the Vic. government - with its big debt, wants to sell its public housing stock.

Deplorable. 

** "tricky" because it involves exploring alternative ideas like a ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) which sidelines the role of the central bank; and price controls, which smack of government intervention/planning...

But meanwhile, Oz has created its biggest ever market failure, with its unaffordable private housing sector; business as usual will mean a generation of people forced into crippling private  rentals forevever - courtesy of mainstream neoliberal economics.       

The greens are right, time to bring in a robin hood type tax.   :)

whiteknight wrote on Sep 21^st, 2024 at 1:05pm:

The greens are right, time to bring in a robin hood type tax.   :)

And who will vote for it?   (Did you read my post?)

Both Labor and  Coalition politicians ( and a majority of  voters) want less tax.

One problem with a 'Robin Hood tax' is defining who is rich, and how much tax you can extract from them (we know they have clever tax lawyers to protect their wealth).   

Adam Bandt to announce Robin Hood tax plan to take on big corporations at National Press Club   :)
2024-08-27
greens.org.au
The Greens will take a series of ‘Robin Hood reforms’ to the next election, Greens Leader Adam Bandt will tell the National Press Club tomorrow, where he will announce the first major measure: a 40% tax on the excessive profits of big corporations to fund significant cost of living support.

The share of income going to big corporations has never been higher. The price gouging behind these surging profits is a key driver of inflation and the cost of living crisis. With many Australians at breaking point due to rising rents, mortgages, and prices at the checkout, Mr Bandt will say that Labor’s cosying up to big corporations is fuelling the crisis.

The money raised will be given back to everyday people in the form of crucial measures that will address the cost of living and inequality crisis, which the Greens will begin rolling out in the lead-up to the next election. These ‘Robin Hood reforms’ will help form the basis of the Greens’ demands in a likely minority Parliament.

Independently costed by the PBO, the Greens’ Big Corporations Tax package will raise $514b over the next decade. It ensures that big corporations who make excessive profits pay a higher share of tax on these excessive profits.

Key details on the proposals

The reforms in the Big Corporations Tax package apply to excessive profits across the economy, but the mechanism differs in each of three different sectors: the Big Corporations Tax (Gas and Oil) reforms the existing PRRT to close the loopholes that Labor has left; the Big Corporations Tax (Coal and Mining) is a 40% tax based on previous proposals for a mining super-profits tax, including the Henry Tax Review; and the Big Corporations Tax (Excessive Profits) is a 40% tax on excessive profits that applies to all other sectors. The Greens’ tax changes are structured to ensure that investment is still incentivised (in areas other than fossil fuels), and are designed to be consistent with existing taxation arrangements to simplify compliance and auditing.

Big Corporations Tax (Excessive Profits)

Revenue: Will raise $296 billion

A 40% tax will be imposed on excessive profits. It will apply to profits earned on turnover after the first $100m. The corporate superprofits tax allows a reasonable rate of return (effectively defined as 5% + long term bond rate) on shareholder equity, allows for companies to carry forward credits for years that saw substantial revenue drops, and avoids financial cliffs that some critics say discourage smaller enterprises from expanding.

The policy has been designed to ensure that while it taxes excessive profits, it retains and extends the existing structure of the tax system that ensures the corporate super profits tax will not take a cent from the pockets of Australians who rely upon returns from their investments, like pensioners or the 17 million Australians1 with superannuation balances.

Big Corporations Tax (Gas and Oil)

Revenue: Will raise $111 billion

The revamped tax on offshore oil and gas will close the loopholes in the PRRT that Labor has left open through its failure to take on the big gas corporations. With 56% of gas currently given to big gas corporations for free 2, it will also mandate the payment of royalties.

Big Corporations Tax (Coal and Mining)

Revenue: Will raise $107 billion

A 40% tax is imposed on the super profits of mining projects. The revamped tax on mining profits excludes new and vital sectors, like lithium or nickel mining. It draws on the work of the Henry Tax Review that successive governments have refused to enact, so that everyone benefits from the resources that mining companies are extracting.

Greens’ estimates of tax payable by some big corporations. For example, drawing on financial statements, these figures estimate a list of ASX companies that have extracted excessive profits over the past decade, and the tax that would be paid on those excessive profits.

Complete garbage, like all greens ideas.

The lying arseholes going to stop corporations from increasing prices to make up for the increased tax? What will they do to restore jobs lost by big companies closing their Australian operations?

greens can say anything—they will never be in power and have to put their idiotic ideas in to practice.

The greens have the balance of power in the senate.  Time the two mains stopped trying to bulldoze their ideas through the senate.   :(      

No, it means the greens can grandstand, that is all.

greens are wreckers.

We have no carbon price now thanks to the bloody greens. No, they are a waste of space.

Yet people still vote for them.  We don't want a government either labor, or the coalition with an automatic rubber stamp.  Start negotiating.   :)

Not many.

Negotiations are only possible between reasonable negotiators and the greens are not that but are wreckers.