The politics of envy - reignited

Tony Burke really made a goose of himself last week in parliamentary question time; in short, he got owned by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull when he questioned his wealth. But lets not forget, the wife (and by default husband) of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is also insanely rich. Tony Burke failed to mention that the Rudd family has a similar wealth as the Turnbull family - oh. Now it comes out the the Turnbull household donates half a million dollars to charity annually - that's a pretty significant tax deduction too.

Yes, Malcolm Turnbull does have investments in managed funds in the Cayman Islands; yes, even Tony Burke himself does not try to infer that Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull do not pay tax in Australia as that would be even more embarrassing for him. However, this is the same Tony Burke that was implicated in the parliamentary travel rorts affair where he flew his family around in business class on taxpayer funds - ouch. 

The Australian Labor Party is trying to tie Malcolm Turnbull with multinational tax avoidance schemes; these are the exact same multinational companies that were operating during the largely ineffective Rudd/Gillard/Rudd governments - they probably should have addressed the issue then. The real issue here is Australia now has a seriously rich Prime Minister who donates more the equivalent PMs salary to charity annually, they are trying to convince voters he is out of touch with the working family. 

This tactic worked with Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey who is also reasonably wealthy as compared to average Australians; but this divisive tactic designed to cover up the fact that the Australian Labor Party has a deeply unpopular leader can't be disguised. 

The dirty and unscrupulous tactics of the Australian Labor Party of constantly playing the man instead of government policy worked on former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, but new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is so much more articulate than Abbott, able to think quickly on his feet and reply with a counter punch so sharp - it leaves these one trick fools rudderless.    

But why the politics of envy? This was a concerted effort by Bill Shorten to deflect attention away from his testimony in the Royal Commission into Union Corruption; in short, Shorten is fried. Thanks to Rudd, the Labor Party is almost unable to elect a new leader until the next election and will be stuck with the sinking and unpopular Bill Shorten after a more than likely election loss. We have a successful Prime Minister who earned his wealth not by inheritance or a successful wife, we have a Prime Minister that was successful in business in his own right. 

Ironically, Australian Super, the industry superannuation fund that Bill Shorten was once a board member also invests some of its funds in Cayman Island domiciled investments. As Australia has a tax information sharing agreement, this isn't an issue with Australian Super and Malcolm Turnbull. Likewise, a zero tax jurisdiction doesn't mean you don't pay tax, well not anymore anyway, it means you are not taxed twice.

Now, if a future Prime Minister emerges who dedicated themselves to community service, science, medical research or similar endeavors and has not earned great wealth; this does not matter, the emphasis here is successful interaction with the community.  

Even more laughable was Bill Shorten's deflection of union corruption, yet he himself is so closely aligned to big business that he flew back from the United States to the Beaconsfield mine disaster in seriously wealthy businessman Richard Pratt's private plane; the site where he launched his political career on the plight of the trapped underground miners - whoa.