24 April 2024
Topics: age verification on social media, federal income taxes higher under Labor, Labor’s protectionism under the Made in Australia plan, skyrocketing EV prices
Peta Credlin:
My panel first, Shadow Environment Minister Jonathon Duniam and columnist with The Spectator, Terry Barnes. Well, welcome to you both. I want to touch back, if I can, on those terror raids that we had this afternoon across Sydney, absolutely chilling, but what’s come out of the debate in the last couple of days, Senator Duniam, is this push from your side, from the Coalition, for mandatory age limits on social media. Now I know some markets overseas are trialling this. I’ve seen the ones for ordering alcohol, let’s say, online you just click through the button, they ask you are you 18, there’s no verification and away you go. Good idea. a) how effective are they? But b) I mean in the end, parents are buying these smartphones, parents are paying for the Wi-Fi and the subscription to the telephone. Surely if we want to stamp down on kids doing the wrong thing online, we need parents to step up as well.
Senator Duniam:
Peta, I do agree that we should not be supplanting the family unit to take responsibility for the raising of their kids. I’ve got three young men myself and I want them to grow up as the most honourable gentleman they possibly can be. I will do everything I can to protect them from the harms of this world. Unfortunately, in this modern world, two of my sons have smart devices and they’re constantly communicating with their mates on them and goodness knows what else they consume. So if there are ways of being able to protect young people from some of the sickening, insidious things that exist on social media and on the internet more broadly then we should do the best we can to adopt those practices. But you’re right, families are where it starts and that is a very important point and certainly something I’ll be pushing for as we move through our policy development in this area.
Peta Credlin:
I will make the point for parents and grandparents watching, of course, you still can buy a telephone that just makes calls and texts, doesn’t get on the Internet, doesn’t let you have social media. I think that’s something people need to think about as well. Terry, this analysis out today that Australians have paid a record $304 billion in federal income tax last financial year, average Australian per person per head $14,000, but companies, this is what I find interesting, the companies have only paid $154 billion. So basically, ordinary people are paying double what business in Australia is paying. As said, a bit shocked to see that split. What do you think?
Terry Barnes:
Well, certainly as one of the millions of Australian personal taxpayers who are living the nightmare Peta, paying thousands of dollars in tax, I probably could if I had a good accountant, I have a good accountant, but a good lawyer and a good tax advisor to actually persuade me to pay less. Look, I’m living the nightmare. But companies have that type of resource. They have that type of advice. They can actually pay their way out of paying more tax, whereas you and I get our salaries, get our fees, get our bracket creep, we get our income tax demands, we get the tax office breathing down our neck and we don’t really have the resources to actually take them on and the tax office knows that and the way they pursue individual personal taxpayers when the when things get a bit tough like they are at the moment as I can personally tell you.
Peta Credlin:
What about those comments today, Jonno, from former Prime Minister Mr Howard. Mr Albanese, Prime Minister Albanese, he started it off, really. He went after the former head of the Productivity Commission, Gary Banks, called him a flat-earther after Banks said, you know, Labor’s new future made in Australia plan had a lot of protectionism put back into the system. Howard says well no, that’s not right, Banks is quite proper in calling it out and that by moving the way they have, they’re actually unwinding, betraying the Bob Hawke reforms of the 80s and 90s. And also I make this point, I mean Ross Greenwood pointed this out, just the other day Labor gave a $400 million loan to a green alumina manufacturer that in the previous year had only had $25,000 of revenue and a couple of staff. Now the banks won’t lend to them, why are taxpayers?
Senator Duniam:
Labor’s response to every problem they encounter is, of course, big government. Churning more money, limited resource than it is, taxpayers money, into propping up projects, picking winners, giving one part of the economy an edge over another is how they do business rather than finding ways to remove impediments and to make Australia a more attractive place to do business globally. Because if you’re a multinational choosing to do business here in Australia or somewhere else and looking to park your next billion dollars, you’re not going to come here if it’s a hard environment in which to do business. And the proposals put forward by the Prime Minister don’t address these problems and they will entrench protectionism, they will entrench the subsidy as Danielle Wood, the current chair of the Productivity Commission, said. Albanese does miss the mark, and I think Mr. Howard is quite right on calling him out and actually putting some facts on the record. Good on him for doing so.
Peta Credlin:
Just quickly, Terry, I mean, Chris Bowen told us the other day when he put out his EV standards that he was going to bring down the cost of electric vehicles. Well, just today, a new pickup truck from the US, a Ford pickup truck, it’s electric, hit the market, the F-150 Lightning it’s called. Well, you can buy it, but it’s going to cost you $250,000.
Terry Barnes:
Yeah, I think if Chris Bowen was talking to Darryl Kerrigan from The Castle, Peta, don’t you think Darryl would be basically say, ‘tell him, mate, you’re dreaming’. Because no self-respecting tradie will ever pay $250K for a ute. I mean, they want things at the best possible price, at the best possible value. This is basically the Ford Edsel of the twenties. I mean, the Ford Edsel was one of the biggest automotive disasters of the 20th century. This could be the biggest automotive disaster of the 21st.
Peta Credlin:
And look, we can laugh about it now because we can still go out and buy our diesel vehicle, petrol vehicles, wait ‘til they all go and we’re all stuck with something worth that much money and we can’t afford it. I’ll leave it there, gents, see you both next week.