Australia’s tax system increasingly favours capital and older wealth while leaving younger Australians with rising debts and shrinking opportunities.

As federal public servants and key ministers are crafting the May budget, University of Canberra vice-chancellor Bill Shorten put forward a proposal last week that illustrates virtually all the unfairness and weakness in the Australian taxation system and economy generally.

It comes after another proposal on tax from the Superpower Institute.

Shorten called for a 1 per cent levy on company profits to fund universities.

The Superpower Institute wants a tax of $90 a tonne of emissions on big fossil-fuel companies and a “fair-share” tax on gas profits, accompanied by generous compensation for the flow-on price increases.

These could be easily dismissed as just tax grabs, but they neatly address the major economic distortions and intergenerational unfairness that has slowly crept into the system.

Shorten says that government squeezing of universities has made them rely more and more upon international students – “a morphine drip”.

It has also made universities concentrate on research (where the grants are) at the expense of quality undergraduate teaching, to the detriment of local and international students alike.

Universities have become more like big corporations and their vice-chancellors more like highly paid CEOs.

International students are attracted by the possibility of permanent residency, as much as the education. That, in turn, has led to more pressure on housing and infrastructure generally.

Also, Australian students are paying far more for their degrees through HECS loans than in the past. It was 20 per cent in 1989 and is now 90 per cent.

As........

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