In the lead-up to the Queensland State Budget, Queensland Greens MP Michael Berkman has announced he will introduce a private member’s bill to establish a Big Bank Levy to raise $4.7 billion over four years to pay for health, education, public infrastructure and jobs.
“Big Banks make billions in profit ripping off regular people with dodgy fees and high interest rates.
“It’s pretty simple: I think it’s time we had a little more for Queenslanders, and a little less for the big banks.
“By making sure big banks pay their fair share, Queensland could fund 4,000 nurses, 4,000 teachers, 10 new schools or 5 regional hospitals every single year.
“Over the last four years the five biggest banks have made $173 billion in pre-tax profits, with a lot of that profit coming out of Queenslanders’ pockets.
“The question for Labor is: do they support more money for health, education and jobs, or do they support the big banks?
“It was good enough for South Australian Labor, so it should be good enough for Queensland Labor… unless Labor politicians have similar retirement plans to our last Labor Premier.
“I hope Anna Bligh’s position as head of the banking lobby won’t influence Queensland Labor’s view of my Bill.”
“The big banks enjoy a massive public subsidy because they’re “too big to fail”, and our plan makes sure Queenslanders get the benefit, not wealthy CEOs and investors.
Details:
- The Bill is similar to the one proposed by the South Australian Labor Government in 2017 and will be introduced to the Queensland Parliament once drafting is complete.
- The Big Bank Levy will be set at 0.05% of liabilities per quarter, raising $4.7 billion over four years, or $1.2 billion per year on average.
- It will apply to Queensland’s share of bank liabilities which are subject to the federal government’s Major Bank levy (Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ, NAB and Macquarie).
- Liabilities include deposits from customers, loans from the Reserve Bank, trading liabilities and other loans taken by the bank.
- Queensland’s share of total bank liabilities will be calculated using Queensland’s Gross State Product as a share of national GDP (currently 18.9%).
- More details here https://greens.org.au/qld/banklevy