We need a government that spends less time snooping into our Google browsing history and more time investigating the theft of billions of dollars of tax revenue each year. Barry Dunning calls for a Royal Commission into corporate tax evasion and avoidance.

It only seems like yesterday that a cherubic Joe Hockey beamed into the living rooms of Australia, making an "emphatic" commitment to each and every one of us that if the Liberals were elected he would deliver "a surplus in our first year and every year after that".

Oh for those sweet days of innocence.

Buried amidst the horrors of last week, a suitably chastened Joe Hockey delivered the Mid-Year Economic Financial Outlook, admitting that under his watch the deficit has blown out by an additional $10 billion in just six months. A return to surplus is now in the never-never land of 2019/2020 and additional sources of revenue are desperately needed.

There is of course one group of no-good bludgers that Hockey hasn't yet tapped. This bunch of leaners are rorting the system on an industrial scale and sticking two fingers up at Team Australia the whole time.

Corporate tax dodgers.

It's difficult to pinpoint the full extent of corporate tax evasion and avoidance here in Australia, but one estimate puts the avoidance alone at $8.4 billion per year. That could fully fund the gold-plated version of Tony Abbott's Paid Parental Leave and leave $3 billion to go towards deficit reduction. Or, you know, invest in schools, hospitals, education, public transport and supporting small businesses.

Truck drivers, teachers and farmers, even (most) politicians pay their fair share.

But major corporations, aided and abetted by the major global accounting firms, have constructed complex corporate structures to avoid paying their fair amount of taxes like the rest of us do. The scale of this rort of taxpayer's money is truly staggering. As detailed recently in the Australian Financial Review, Walt Disney restructured its Australian operations in 2009 "with a $1 share trade and ended 25 days later with tax-free profits of $1.3 billion". As further detailed in the AFR, a host of major Australian companies including "AMP, Macquarie Group, Lend Lease and the Goodman Group" have also been implicated in the LuxLeaks scandals.

In the run up to the G20 Joe Hockey was loudly trying to convince his international peers to tackle this wide-ranging tax avoidance head on. But buried on page 117 of last week's MYEFO was the statement:

The government will not proceed with a targeted anti-avoidance provision to address certain 'conduit' arrangements involving foreign multinational enterprises, first announced in the 2013-14 MYEFO.

In plain English, the Government has shelved very modest measures to close a handful of the tax loopholes described by the head of the Australian Tax Office (ATO) as "abused" to the tune of "hundreds of millions of dollars" each year by major corporations.

It gets worse: the Government is also proceeding with plans, announced in November, to cut 4700 staff from the ATO. That's right. At the same time the budget has fallen off a cliff and the scale of this tax rort begins to emerge, the Government's response is to make it even harder for the ATO to chase tax evaders.

It's clear this Government doesn't have the temperament or the inclination to take on the cigar chomping executives, preferring instead to go after the sick, the poor, the young and the old.

But there is one institution in Australia that has the power, the resources and the wherewithal to do a thorough job of it - what we need is a Royal Commission into corporate tax evasion and avoidance. Close tax loopholes

Royal Commissions have sweeping powers to compel testimony and the resources to exhaustively investigate any claims. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is forcing priests (including Cardinal George Pell) and others into the stand to account for their actions in a way that no other forum can.

We also know that the Prime Minster is trigger-happy when it comes to Royal Commissions, splurging close to $100 million dollars of taxpayers' money on politically motivated vendettas against Kevin Rudd (Pink Batts) and the trade union movement (the Heydon Royal Commission).

There is also the precedent of the Costigan Royal Commission, which investigated the "bottom of the harbour" tax avoidance scheme.

So let's put these extraordinary powers to good use. A Royal Commission into tax evasion and avoidance can compel witnesses from the CEO down to the tea lady to take the stand. It can compel these executives to account for their actions and to explain to the rest of us why they think they shouldn't pay tax.

It could also unpick the links between corporations, Governments and public servants that result in this softly, softly approach to corporate tax evasion and avoidance.

While corporate tax evasion and avoidance is a serious global issue, we need to take action now in Australia or risk waiting forever for the stars to magically align, as seems to be the approach on climate change.

We need a government that spends less time snooping into our Google browsing history and more time investigating the theft of billions of dollars of tax revenue each year.

A Royal Commission, with all its force and power, is a good place to start.

Barry Dunning works at the Transport Workers' Union of New South Wales as media and communications manager. He has previously worked as a media and policy advisor to the Irish Labour Party. He writes in a personal capacity and not on behalf of his employer. View his full profile here.