Acting Greens leader Adam Bandt says the government could raise $791 million in three years under a policy, costed by Treasury, that would impose a 50 per cent tax rate on income above $1 million annually.
‘The country has a growing revenue crisis. Australia’s fiscal cliff may be looming more slowly, but it’s coming,’ Mr Bandt said in a statement on Saturday.
‘If we don’t increase taxes on big business and the wealthy, then governments will start cutting services and raising the taxes that the rest of us pay.’
He said it was ‘disgraceful’ that Labor was taking benefits away from single parents to raise revenue, but leaving millionaires alone.
The policy has been unveiled three days before new laws come into effect that will cut parenting payments to tens of thousands of families.
Most of the 84,000 single parents who receive parenting payments to the Newstart allowance when their youngest child turns eight.
However, the government will start paying the Schoolkids Bonus to eligible families, or $410 a year for primary students and $820 a year for high school students.
About 78,000 mums and dads will be immediately affected when the laws come into effect on Tuesday, of whom about 63,700 are single parents.
A Department of Human Services spokeswoman said most would transfer to the Newstart Allowance from Tuesday, which would mean a cut of up to $90 each week for single parents.
Source: Sky News Australia