Andrew Leigh

MIND THE INEQUALITY GAP, MR MORRISON

The Reserve Bank Governor has confirmed what many Australians already know – that inequality is indeed increasing.

Dr Lowe told an event organised by the Australian Business Economists that inequality "grew quite a lot in the 1980s and the 1990s and it has risen a little bit just recently… It has become more pronounced in the past few years because of the of the rise in assets prices and people that own those assets have seen their wealth go up".

The facts tell a clear story. Since the mid-1970s, earnings have risen three times as fast for the top tenth of Australians as for the bottom tenth. The labour share in the economy is at a four-decade low, and the home ownership rate is at a six-decade low.

Labor will tackle inequality through fair tax reforms, needs-based school funding and defending universal health care. The Turnbull Government prefers to prevaricate and procrastinate.

Since they came to office, the Abbott and Turnbull Governments have proposed slowing the rate of pension increases, cutting the income support bonus, and removing consumer protections from the financial advice market.

They have reduced the pay of the men and women who clean their offices, and just delivered a $16,400 tax cut to those with million-dollar incomes.

As the saying goes, when you’re in a hole, stop digging. Scott Morrison needs to admit that his claims about falling inequality are bunkum, and join the constructive conversation about building a more equal Australia.

WEDNESDAY, 26 JULY 2017