The ACTU has proposed a radical overhaul of the country’s economic structures, promoting a tax on companies that benefit from high inflation and price controls on some goods and services, while instructing the Reserve Bank to reduce the unemployment
In a plan to be debated at the federal government’s jobs summit, the Australian Council of Trade Unions is also calling for penalties on companies that redirect their money to shareholders instead of expanding operations and restrictions on speculative lending to in the real estate market.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus says there is no point in “pushing the boundaries” of economic policy. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The government is bringing 100 people from the public and private sectors to its jobs and skills summit in September to look at ways to keep unemployment low, increase productivity and raise real incomes.
Today, the peak union organization will invite Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to the summit.
Center for Future Work director Jim Stanford, who authored the ACTU Labor Summit discussion paper, said the RBA could easily drive the country into recession as it used the “hammer” of rates to ‘interest to reduce inflation.
“They are ready to cause a recession and put hundreds of thousands of people out of work,” he said.
More information about the proposal here.