Catherine Cusack (Echo, 27 May) says she believes ‘Australians are fine with fairness for housing. The issue is messy because Labor went a step too far by increasing capital gains tax on non-housing investment’.
At no time does she justify her belief. She doesn’t explain why it’s fine to tax earned income [from labour] at a higher rate than unearned income [from investments]. Why a PAYE taxpayer should pay more tax than an investor on the same income. Why there should be fairness in housing investments but not in non-housing investments.
Most investors in the stock market, for example, are wealthy individuals, family trusts, etc, because they have the funds available to invest after they have housed, fed, clothed and cared for their families which most people who earn their income do not.
Consequently, it seems reasonable to argue that unearned income should be taxed at a higher rate than earned income.
What she should have said is ‘I believe Australians are fine with fairness in taxation. Fairness means unearned income should be taxed at the same rate as earned income. Labor got it right’.
Warren Kennedy, Mullumbimby
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