Will Ockenden reported this story on Saturday, March 8, 2014 08:21:00

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Greens MP Adam Bandt has accused millionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart of being 'a threat to Australian egalitarianism'.



Ms Rinehart has attacked what she calls Australia's entitlement mentality, and has called on the Government to emulate the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.



Greens MP Adam Bandt says the real problem is billionaires not paying enough tax.



He's speaking here to Will Ockenden.



ADAM BANDT: I'm sick of billionaires telling us that the only way we can make ends meet in the country is if ordinary people pay more and people like Gina Rinehart herself pay less.



The government's revenue is decreasing and it's threatening our ability to fund the services Australians expect. We've got two choices: we can either say people like Gina Rinehart ought to pay a fairer share, or we can start cutting back on health and on schools.



WILL OCKENDEN: But she does say that essentials like healthcare, defence, police, aged care, and roads are fine - her main point in the article is that we're not earning enough revenue for what we're spending. Does she have a point?



ADAM BANDT: Revenue that the government brings in has been in decline for a number of years. If Australia generated as much revenue to go to the government to fund all those essential services as it did under John Howard, the budget would be some $20 billion a year better off. Now that funds a lot of those services. The tax take has been in decline. We've seen from the likes of Gina Rinehart an assault on having a proper mining tax, bearing in mind that these minerals in the ground are owned by all Australians, and we only get to dig them up and sell them off once.



It's things like a proper mining tax that would allow us to do the kind of things that most Australians expect and instead we've got people like Gina Rinehart standing in the way.



WILL OCKENDEN: But why is the answer more tax instead of cutting spending, like what Gina Rinehart is really arguing for in her article?



ADAM BANDT: Australia, comparatively, is now taxing at a relatively low rate, certainly lower than what it used to. And even if we just increased tax back to where it was under John Howard - hardly a radical move - we would be in a much better position to afford healthcare that people deserve and to afford schools and the other kind of social spending that Gina Rinehart wants to take the axe to.



WILL OCKENDEN: Is the problem that you have the message or the messenger?



ADAM BANDT: Around the world, there are some people who are incredibly wealthy who see it as part of their social duty to lift people out of poverty and to give a bit back to our society. Gina Rinehart certainly doesn't fall into that category.



But there's a broader issue here than just about the individual - it's about in Australia, what do we consider to be a fair share for billionaires who make their money out of the minerals that we all own digging them up and selling them off overseas, which we only get to do once, what's a fair share for those people to pay?



ELIZABETH JACKSON: Greens MP Adam Bandt, talking there to AM's Will Ockenden.