blatant propaganda article:

Australia - still a colony?

Australia is apparently 90% owned by transnational corporations.

Compare this with foreign ownership in the:

UK = 10.5%;
USA = 10.3%;
Japan = 2.1%;
European Union = 3.5%.

Australia is apparently the most foreign owned developed country and one of the most foreign-owned of ALL countries.

But most of all, these companies pay LITTLE OR NO TAX.

Because of a 1953 Bill called the "Double Tax Agreement Bill", formulated by the Australian Treasury, most of these transnational companies pay little or no tax. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 1996-97 the total tax revenue was $124.6 billion. Of that Australians paid $114.7 billion. Foreign-owned transnational corporations paid only around $9.9 billion dollars of that tax. In other words, those who own and profit from nearly all of Australia, contribute less than 8% of the taxation revenue.

The result is, that as the dwindling number of Australian-owned companies cannot provide sufficient tax, and little comes from the transnationals, the burden is placed upon the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxpayer ie. the little guy. Australia is rich in resources, but the foreign-owned transnational corporations are the ones making the money out of them, not us. And here we are deep in national debt.

Privatisation

The proposed 'solution' of the major political parties to our national debt is to: 1) scapegoat Australians on social welfare; and 2) sell off our public assets to transnational corporations (ie. the privatisation of public utilities such as Qantas, the Commonwealth Bank, Telstra (which will be transnational-dominated eventually when the mom and pop investors sell their shares)).

After the one-off injection of money from these sales is used up, the Australian public (through the government) is then left without the previous ongoing income derived from these utilities. Remember, these utilities were founded and developed with our taxes. They really belong to us, not the government. They are not the governments to sell. Ideally they should only be sold after a national referendum of the Australian people decrees so.

The Media

Nearly 70% of Australian print media is owned by foreign companies. The media derives at least 85% of its revenue from overseas-owned advertisers, placed by large overseas advertising agencies. This explains why information on foreign ownership is not reported and why those who speak out are demonised and persecuted. Furthermore, the label "Made in Australia" does NOT mean Australian owned.

The G.S.T. (Goods & Services Tax).

Why are big business, the foreign-owned mass-media & their politicians so keen on the Goods & Services Tax? Could it be because they will be paying less tax than they presently do? If they pay less, it means we will probably pay more. (In a real democracy, the GST would be put to a referendum vote, or we would at least have Citizen's Initiated Referenda to redress the matter).

SOLUTIONS?

Potentially Include:
1) Rescind the above-mentioned 1953 Bill which gives foreign companies a competitive edge over Australian businesses and leads to profits going overseas un-taxed or under-taxed (Of course, Australian-owned businesses which exploit workers, consumers & the environment are to be deplored as well);
2) a reappraisal of political parties that have assisted this takeover of the economy; &
3) a fair tax system that would truly help the people of Australia.

One such tax system, proposed by Tax Reform Limited, is called "2% Easy Tax". A test model of this conducted by the University of Queensland apparently found that if everyone was to pay this tax, including foreign corporations, Australia's income tax should rise to $660 billion annually. This tax system was badly misrepresented by the media and the One Nation political party in the 1998 Federal Election.

According to Tax Reform Ltd, with 2% Easy Tax:

the spending power of the Australian dollar would rise about 17%;
the price of goods & services would come down greatly WHILE maintaining the same level of profits for business;
we would be able to pay off foreign debt in around 5 years and buy back Australian industry;
the hidden tax costs to employers to employ people would reduce tremendously meaning more job creations, resulting in less social welfare, smaller government and less taxes on us;
it would mean transnational corporations would be more likely to pay their share of tax;
filling in tax forms would also be much simpler and straight-forward;
plus many more benefits to virtually all sections of the community.

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For more information:

Tax Reform Group : PO Box 2927 Brisbane 4001 Australia http://www.taxreform.org

Reclaim Australia for the People http://www.reclaimaustralia.net/ who host the official web site for Project mandate http://www.ozscan.net.au/mandate/index.htm Project Mandate is aimed at having the G.S.T. repealed.

Austand - PO Box 173 Noosa Heads Qld 4567 www.ozemail.com.au/~austand/oznews.htm

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Authored by J. Citizen in 1998-99, for EYE & Blatant Propaganda zine.

Most of the above info was derived from "The Great Australian Swindle" an article by Austand founder John Cumming, as well as from his 1993 book "Lucky Be Damned - exposes how Australians have been kept in the dark" ($25). He was formerly the owner of one of the largest Australian advertising agencies, Nicols-Cumming Advertising.

Please note, EYE, e.l.f. & Blatant Propaganda certainly DO NOT agree with all views of the above-mentioned.

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