Tax cuts proposed for middle income earners will no doubt be welcomed by millions of Australians. But for many of Australia's most vulnerable workers, they don't pass the fairness test.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It is the middle income earners, a vague term that now covers households taking home hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, who are the beneficiaries of the tax bracket adjustments mooted by Mr Turnbull in Sydney on Monday night.
The Coalition is targeting the 32.5 per cent and the 37 per cent tax brackets, ostensibly in order to stop mid-range income earners being forced into higher brackets due to inflation based wage increases.
These brackets cover individuals earning from $37,001 to $180,000 a year.
Given the last decade has recorded some of the slowest wages growth on record, this can hardly be a national crisis. It could be argued the initiative is more about electioneering at a time when support for the Government has fallen over a cliff than any important recalibrating of the tax scales.
That doesn't mean there aren't major social justice issues that need to be dealt with as a matter of urgency however.
One is the ongoing exploitation of many workers, usually young and often in this country on student and working visas, by rapacious employers through "wage theft".
This can involve falsifying time sheets so staff work longer hours than they are paid for while appearing to be paid in accordance with the award or, in extreme cases, being forced to give money back after they have been paid.
Mr Turnbull's tax announcement had the misfortune to coincide with the release of a report, prepared by academics from the University of Technology Sydney and the University of NSW, that found wage theft is endemic in Australia.
A quarter of international students and a third of backpackers earn $12 or less an hour.
While young and under skilled Australian workers are also ripped off with frightening regularity, those who come from overseas to study or for a working holiday are particularly vulnerable.
Fruit pickers, farm labourers, wait staff, takeaway food workers, convenience store and petrol station attendants are among the most frequently exploited.
Recent cases of wage theft and exploitation have included serial underpayment by Domino's, 7-Eleven, Pizza Hut, Caltex and other highly respectable companies.
A Unions ACT report released in August found workers as young as 15 had reported being underpaid, harassed and expected to work in unsafe conditions in the national capital.
More than three quarters of the 260 15- to 25-year-olds surveyed said they had been underpaid. More than half had to work unpaid "trial shifts" to secure employment.
While the latest tax reforms will be welcomed by those already in secure, and well-paid, employment, they do nothing for those at the bottom of the pole.
If the Government is genuinely concerned about social justice, perhaps it could to refocus its gaze to include some of the least fortunate and most vulnerable workers.
