It would be impossible for Australia’s wealthiest citizens to pay less tax than teachers, nurses or shop assistants, under a tax policy due to be released by the Australian Greens.

The party wants to introduce a so-called Buffett Rule – similar to that proposed by the US president, Barack Obama, in 2012 - to enforce a minimum income tax liability of 35% of total income for individuals with income above $300,000.

The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, will make the announcement on Wednesday during his speech at the National Press Club in Canberra.

He will say his plan is not a new tax - it is simply a guarantee of existing tax rates for taxpayers in the top 1% of income.

“Last year, 56 people who earned a collective $129m paid no tax, not a single cent, but spent $47m on tax advice,” Di Natale says.

“Meanwhile, Australians are being told to tighten their belts while the government rips $80bn from our schools and hospitals.”

“The Greens would introduce the Buffett Rule: a high-income tax guarantee to put a floor under tax deductions [for Australia’s wealthiest].”

The Greens’ proposal gets its name from the US billionaire investor Warren Buffett, ranked among the world’s wealthiest people, who in 2011 said he was horrified to discover that his secretary paid more tax than he did, as a proportion of income.

Buffett said the US tax system should be changed to prevent this from happening, and the Obama administration tried to do so in 2012, but it was unsuccessful.

According to costings by the Parliamentary Budget Office, the Greens’ plan would raise $7.3bn in revenue for the commonwealth over four years.

It would enforce a minimum income tax liability of 35% of total income for individuals with total income above $300,000 – the top 1% of income tax payers.

The $300,000 threshold would be indexed every two years from the date of implementation in line with growth in male total average weekly earnings.



The Greens would like the proposal to take effect from 1 July 2016.

In speaking notes provided ahead of the Press Club speech, Di Natale also says the Greens’ top priority going into the next parliament will be to renew Australia’s energy system by putting a price back on carbon pollution.

He says he also wants to introduce climate laws that protect the Great Barrier Reef and rapidly drive investment towards renewable energy and away from polluting coal.

“It is time to stop paying big polluters and make them start paying again,” Di Natale says.

He also says he will be flying to Cairns on Wednesday evening to witness first-hand “the devastating impact of our actions on the Reef.”

“And I will lay out the Greens plan to phase out coal and transition out of coal exports that I urge the old parties to have the courage and vision to support,” he says.

The Greens’ Buffett Rule policy is similar an idea floated by Labor at its National Conference last year.

Opposition spokesman fo transport and infrastructure, Anthony Albanese, told the conference that high wealth individuals who minimise their taxable incomes with creative accounting should be subject to a non-negotiable flat rate of tax – perhaps as high as 35% of their total incomes.

The idea is not official Labor policy.