Reason in Revolt Now Thunders to End the Age of Neoliberal Tax Cant

Abstract

This paper looks at the political economy of tax reform in Australia and argues that without an upsurge in resistance to neoliberal policies the ongoing shift of wealth to capital from labor in Australia will continue. The first part of the paper looks briefly at some of the social ferment going on around the globe to give some context to the resistance to neoliberalism and the demand for tax justice. I then explain what neoliberalism and Keynesianism are and how the reality of profit over people renders Keynesianism a dead end while the reality of economic crisis renders neoliberalism an anachronism. I go on to discuss the tendency of the rate of profit to fall in its global and Australian contexts. I finish off by examining the neoliberal tax reforms of the carbon tax, the Minerals Resource Rent Tax and the neoliberalism underpinning the Australia’s Future Tax System Report (‘the Henry Tax Review’).