The Greens have unveiled an extremely targeted new tax proposal that would recoup some of the grotesque pandemic profits amassed by Australia’s billionaires. It’s so targeted, in fact, that it would only affect the 122 people listed in this article.
Essentially, The Greens want to take 50% of last year’s profits made by Australia’s 122 billionaires. Not their entire net worth or anything – just their pandemic profits, which amount to roughly $90 billion.
The proposal would be a one-off levy, kind of like what Bernie Sanders is backing in the US, and it would raise $29 billion in revenue. Yes, with a B.
“Australia’s billionaires are similar to wartime profiteers, who while the rest of the nation is making a sacrifice on a collective effort, lined their own pockets with cash,” Greens leader Adam Bandt said on Wednesday night.
He said that a global pandemic is no time for billionaires to be increasing their already-huge fortunes by obscene amounts.
“Gina Rinehart more than doubled her wealth during the pandemic, and is now worth $36 billion,” Bandt added.
“Twiggy, Rinehart and Clive Palmer increased their personal wealth by 141% between them during the pandemic.”
The idea is to take this money and instead put it towards things like uni funding, building more public housing, and making Australia’s transport run on electricity generated from renewables.
“The billionaires won’t like it, but I don’t care,” Bandt said.
We scoured The Australian‘s 2021 rich list to find out exactly who these people are, and how much they’re currently worth.
The latter half of the list veers quite decisively into “whomst?!” territory, but that’s exactly why it’s a hand bit of into to keep in your back pocket for when the time comes, hey.
1. Gina Rinehart – $36.28 billion
Australia’s richest person (and at one time the richest woman in the world) sure does love to openly discus the idea of paying workers just $2 a day while she herself makes hundreds of dollars every second.
Rinehart inherited Hancock Prospecting from her dad, and she now spends her time churning out “joke books” full of stolen boomer memes. Very cool!
2. Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest – $29.61 billion
Oldmate Twiggy spends his time meddling in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s business.
If he really cared about disadvantaged people in this country, he’d simply pay more tax.
3. Mike Cannon-Brookes – $21.99 billion
Credit where credit’s due, the Atlassian co-founder is relatively woke and is a big supporter of things like renewable energy.
It’s also hard not to hate the schmick new Atlassian headquarters set to be built in the heart of Sydney.
4. Scott Farquhar – $21.95 billion
Unsurprisingly, the other Atlassian co-founder is next on the list.
He’s also one of the better people among Australia’s billionaires, but it would still be great if he paid more tax!
5. Anthony Pratt & family – $21.27 billion
Pratt made his fortune in the paper and cardboard packaging and recycling industries.
It’s as dull as it sounds. What’s not dull, however, is billionaires paying more tax.
6. Harry Triguboff – $17.2 billion
Australia’s very own Mr Monopoly is the founder of Meriton, which owns key real estate all over the country.
You know what else is an unavoidable part of Monopoly? Paying tax.
7. Hui Wing Mau – $10.15 billion
Hui is another massive property developer, who also should be paying more tax.
He was once described as the “Australian billionaire that nobody knows”, which is a pretty fair characterisation.
8. Clive Palmer – $9.76 billion
Clive, Clive, Clive. Surely some of that money you blew on animatronic dinosaurs or your disastrous (and extremely irritating) election campaign would be better spent on helping ordinary Aussies.
The man simply doesn’t know what to do with all his billions. Hopefully a tax like this can help him.
9. Frank Lowy – $8.82 billion
This is the dude who runs Westfield shopping centres, and has a neoliberal think tank, the Lowy Institute, named after him.
Fewer think tanks and more tax, thanks.
10. Kerry Stokes – $7.26 billion
Kerry Stokes has his fingers in a whole bunch of different industries like mining and property development, but he’s perhaps best known as the chairman of Seven West Media (the company that owns Channel 7).
Oh, and he’s bankrolling the mammoth litigation of alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, who is suing several media organisations for reporting on the alleged war crimes which he maintains are false.
11. Alan Wilson & family – $6.61 billion
12. Ivan Glasenberg – $5.87 billion
Turns out the Glencore dude counts Australia as one of his three citizenships.
13. John Gandel – $5.06 billion
14. Richard White – $4.68 billion
15. Lang Walker – $4.5 billion
16. Chau Chak Wing – $4.17 billion
UTS and USyd students will be very familiar with this man, whose name is plastered on several swish new buildings.
17. Len Ainsworth & family – $4.01 billion
18. James Packer – $4 billion
Sell your casinos and pay more tax, plz.
19. Lindsay Fox – $3.93 billion
Your trucks are ugly.
20. Jack Cowin – $3.77 billion
21. Lachlan Murdoch – $3.62 billion
Fuck your newspapers. And your dad.
=22. Avi Silver – $3.6 billion
=22. Eddie Hirsch – $3.6 billion
24. Anthony Eisen – $3.21 billion
25. Nick Molnar – $3.2 billion
Maybe he can put his tax on Afterpay.
=26. Michael Hintze – $3 billion
=26. David Hains & family – $3 billion
28. Gerry Harvey – $2.91 billion
Oh, and pay back that $22 million you took from JobKeeper while you’re at it.
29. Vivek Sehgal – $2.88 billion
=30. Zac Fried – $2.81 billion
=30. Morry Fraid – $2.81 billion
=32. John Hancock – $2.73 billion
Tell your mum (Gina Rinehart) we hate her. And you too, probably.
=32. Bianca Rinehart – $2.73 billion
See above!
=32. Ginia Rinehart – $2.73 billion
See above!!
=32. Hope Welker – $2.73 billion
See above!!!
36. Solomon Lew – $2.7 billion
37. Maurice Alter & family – $2.64 billion
38. Greg Goodman & family – $2.6 billion
=39. Vicky Teoh – $2.58 billion
=39. David Teoh – $2.58 billion
=41. Cliff Obrecht – $2.5 billion
=41. Melanie Perkins – $2.5 billion
Tbh Canva is great. But being a billionaire isn’t!
43. Michael Heine & family – $2.46 billion
=44. Marc Besen & family – $2.45 billion
=44. John van Lieshout – $2.45 billion
He sounds like the pretender to the throne of some defunct European monarchy. But in fact he’s an Aussie billionaire!
46. Bruce Mathieson – $2.4 billion
47. Angela Bennett – $2.39 billion
48. Prudence Macleod – $2.33 billion
49. Laurence Escalante – $2.15 billion
50. Michael Hodgson – $2.13 billion
51. Nick Politis – $2.12 billion
Pay some more tax and suddenly the whole country will cheer for the Roosters.
52. Russell Withers & family – $2.11 billion
53. Brett Blundy – $1.94 billion
=54. Khalil Shahin – $1.93 billion
=54. Samer Shahin – $1.93 billion
=54. Yasser Shahin – $1.93 billion
57. Chris Wallin – $1.92 billion
58. Jonathan Munz & family – $1.89 billion
59. Nigel Austin – $1.88 billion
60. Gretel Packer – $1.87 billion
61. Terry Snow & family – $1.82 billion
=62. Leonie Baldock – $1.8 billion
=62. Alexandra Burt – $1.8 billion
=64. Gordon Fu – $1.79 billion
=64. Jack Lin – $1.79 billion
=64. Jack Gance – $1.79 billion
67. Mario Verrocchi – $1.78 billion
Mamma – and I cannot stress this enough – mia!
68. Tony Perich & family – $1.77 billion
69. Andrew Budzinski – $1.73 billion
Nice.
=70. Maha Sinnathamby – $1.68 billion
=70. Paul Salteri & family – $1.68 billion
=72. Ye Lipei – $1.65 billion
=72. Alex Waislitz – $1.65 billion
74. Bob Ell – $1.64 billion
75. Shaun Bonett – $1.61 billion
=76. Giuseppe Casella – $1.54 billion
=76. John Casella – $1.54 billion
=76. Marcello Casella – $1.54 billion
79. Sam Tarascio – $1.52 billion
=80. Peter Gunn – $1.49 billion
=80. Hamish Douglass – $1.49 billion
82. Arthur Laundy & family – $1.45 billion
83. Paul Lederer & family – $1.42 billion
=84. Raymond Barro – $1.41 billion
=84. Rhonda Barro – $1.41 billion
=86. Charlotte Vidor – $1.4 billion
=86. Ervin Vidor – $1.4 billion
=88. Bill Roche – $1.35 billion
=88. Imelda Roche – $1.35 billion
90. Paul Little – $1.34 billion
91. Anthony Hall – $1.3 billion
=92. Robert Millner & family – $1.27 billion
=92. Sam Hupert – $1.27 billion
=92. Sam Kennard & family – $1.27 billion
Mr Kennards Self Storage himself!
=95. Andrew Buckeridge – $1.26 billion
=95. Sam Buckeridge – $1.26 billion
97. Judith Neilson – $1.25 billion
Neilson is a big financial supporter of the arts and journalism, which is cool.
=98. Justin Hemmes & family – $1.24 billion
Boycotting Bar Totti’s until Justin Hemmes pays more tax!
=98. John Richards & family – $1.24 billion
=98. John Richards & family – $1.24 billion
100. Reg Rowe – $1.22 billion
101. John Kahlbetzer & family – $1.19 billion
=102. Chris Mackay – $1.18 billion
=102. Will Vicars – $1.18 billion
=102. Raphael Geminder – $1.18 billion
=102. Tim Roberts – $1.18 billion
106. Kerr Neilson – $1.17 billion
107. Chris Thomas – $1.16 billion
=108. Chris Ellison – $1.13 billion
=108. Theo Karedis & family – $1.13 billion
110. Con Makris & family – $1.11 billion
=111. Brian Flannery – $1.09 billion
=111. Alan Rydge – $1.09 billion
=113. Bruce Gordon – $1.07 billion
=113. Sandy Oatley & family – $1.07 billion
115. Nicholas Paspaley & family – $1.06 billion
=116. Nechama Werdiger & family – $1.05 billion
=116. Ralph Sarich – $1.05 billion
118. Sam Chong – $1.04 billion
=119. Shesh Ghale – $1.03 billion
=119. Jamuna Gurung – $1.03 billion
121. Peter Scanlon & family – $1.02 billion
122. Denis Wagner & family – $1.01 billion
The end!
