Whack the banks with a windfall tax to solve the Budget squeeze

OPINION: Everyone knows we have a problem with tax. We need more of it to fund our schools and nurses and essential infrastructure, yet practically every family in the country is struggling with the high cost of living and needs a break. The upcoming Budget of Finance Minister Nicola Willis is being squeezed between these two realities.

So let’s do the sensible thing, and empty the accounts of the Australian banks.

The Commerce Commission’s ongoing market study into personal banking makes sobering reading. The four Australian-owned banks – ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac – are amongst the most profitable in the OECD. Their profits are around twice as high as they should be. And over the last three years, during a brutal cost of living crisis, they raised their margins by about 25%.

As a result, they’re making eye-watering levels of profit: $7.21 billion after tax in the last 12 months alone. That’s around $20 million a day being siphoned out of our wallets and our economy, and exported across the Tasman for the benefit of fat-cat Australian bankers.

This isn’t banking. It’s looting.

Click here to read the full article - https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/350251693/whack-banks-windfall-tax-solve-budget-squeeze

(This may be behind a paywall, email us if you’d like to see a copy - reform @ bankingreform . nz)