The Australian Electoral Commission quietly published the full distributions of lower house preferences earlier this week, shedding light on the election’s remaining known unknown: how close One Nation came to maybe pulling off a miracle in Hunter. Joel Fitzgibbon retained the seat for Labor with a margin of 2.98% over the Nationals, landing him on the wrong end of a 9.48% swing – the third biggest of the election after the central Queensland seats of Capricornia and Dawson, the politics of coal mining being the common thread between all three seats.
The wild card in the deck was that Hunter was also the seat where One Nation polled strongest, in what a dare say was a first for a non-Queensland seat – 21.59%, compared with 23.47% for the Nationals and 35.57% for Labor. That raised the question of how One Nation might have done in the final count if they emerged ahead of the Nationals on preferences. The answer is assuredly not-quite-well-enough, but we’ll never know for sure. As preferences from mostly left-leaning minor candidates were distributed, the gap between Nationals and One Nation barely moved, the Nationals gaining 4.81% to reach 28.28% at the final distribution, and One Nation gaining 4.79% to fall short with 26.38%. One Nation preferences then proceeded to flow to the Nationals with noteworthy force, with the final exclusion sending 19,120 votes (71.03%) to the Nationals and 28.97% to Labor.
Speaking of, the flow of minor party preferences between the Coalition and Labor is the one detail of the election result on which the AEC is still holding out. However, as a sequel to last week’s offering on Senate preferences, I offer the following comparison of flows in Queensland in 2016 and 2019. This is based on Senate ballot paper data, observing the number that placed one major party ahead of the either, or included neither major party in their preference order. In the case of the 2016 election, this is based on a sampling of one ballot paper in 50; the 2019 data is from the full set of results.
It has been widely noted that the Coalition enjoyed a greatly improved flow of One Nation preferences in the lower house, but the Senate results offer the interesting twist that Labor’s share hardly changed – evidently many One Nation voters who numbered neither major party in 2016 jumped off the fence and preferenced the Coalition this time. Also notable is that Labor received an even stronger share of Greens preferences than in 2016. If this was reflected nationally, it’s a phenomenon that has passed unnoticed, since the flow of One Nation and United Australia Party preferences was the larger and more telling story.
Other electorally relevant developments of the past week or so:
• Laura Jayes of Sky News raises the prospect of the Nationals asserting a claim to the Liberal Senate vacancy created by Arthur Sinodinos’s appointment to Washington. The Nationals lost one of their two New South Wales seats when Fiona Nash fell foul of Section 44 in late 2017, resulting in a recount that delivered to the Liberals a seat that would otherwise have been held by the Nationals until 2022. Since that is also when Sinodinos’s term expires, giving the Nationals the seat would restore an order in which the Nationals held two out of the five Coalition seats.
• Fresh from her win over Tony Abbott in Warringah, The Australian reported on Tuesday that Zali Steggall was refusing to deny suggestions she might be persuaded to join the Liberal Party, although she subsequently complained the paper had twisted her words. A report in The Age today notes both “allies and opponents” believe Steggall will struggle to win re-election as an independent with Abbott out of the picture, and gives cause to doubt she would survive a preselection challenge as a Liberal.
• Labor is undergoing a personnel change in the Victorian Legislative Council after the resignation of Philip Dalidakis, who led the party’s ticket for Southern Metropolitan region at both the 2014 and 2018 elections. Preserving the claim of the Right faction Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, the national executive is set to anoint Enver Erdogan, a workplace lawyer for Maurice Blackburn, former Moreland councillor and member of the Kurdish community. The Australian reports former Melbourne Ports MP Michael Danby has joined the party’s Prahran and Brighton branches in registering displeasure that the national executive is circumventing a rank-and-file plebiscite. Particularly contentious is Erdogan’s record of criticism of Israel, a sore point in a region that encompasses Melbourne’s Jewish stronghold around Caulfield.
Justin Amash May be running for President. Trump will have multiple candidates again. Just now From CNN. Jake Tapper asked him and he would not rule it out.
In 1984, average annual earnings according to the ABS were $17,336. Income tax payable would have been $2376, or 13.7 %.
In Feb 2019, average annual earnings were $83,454 and income tax, not including the Medicare Levy would be $18,699, or 22.4%
Working people are certainly paying a lot more income tax now than in the past. This relates to average earnings, which are a good deal higher than median earnings. The tax on median incomes would be quite a lot less than the tax taken from average earnings. Of course, taxation increased quite steeply during the 1970s as Commonwealth spending as a share of GDP also climbed. It’s not so easy to find the data for the 1940s, 50s and 60s but I will look more widely and report what I can find.
The result of near-eternal Liberal rule since the mid 1990s has been to increase income taxes on working people. This is very apparent.
The case for reducing this tax is very strong. Taxation of the incomes of working people is an element in the repression of wages-and-work in which the Liberals are engaged.
The repression of labour through wages-and-work is a feature of Green policy. Only Labor has a record of reducing taxes levied on the incomes of working people.
In 2019 dollar terms the average income from 1984 would be $53,446 and a tax of $8,916.95. 16.7%
The question becomes do you use income growth or inflation to compare taxes.
If average wages go up then the cost to the government also goes up and taxes will need to increase to pay for this.
Morning all. I agree with briefly on tax. When I was at uni the then tax free threshold covered all of my earnings from part time and vacation work. So it all helped. Now it would not.
One of the reasons that income tax rates have risen is that household income as a share of GDP has been falling for several decades. While this has been occurring, Commonwealth spending as a share of GDP has increased. To maintain spending while not running deficits, the tax take as a share of income has had to rise.
The high taxes on working people should be seen as an artefact of their declining real income share of GDP. The result is that real disposable household income has been falling even faster than the real household share of GDP.
This also accounts in part for the very big shift in household savings rates over the last 50 years. To maintain consumption and support home buying, household debt has risen very significantly. Household savings rates have fallen to close to zero. They have had to fall given the pressure on real disposable incomes. However, households are now trying to de-lever: to increase their savings rates. This is a reflection of many years of declining real disposable incomes in a context of now-very-protracted persistence of high unemployment and under-employment and deflation in the price of land.
The recessionary conditions now being experienced in the labour market are a result of these very long term trends in household income, savings, debt and taxation and a bubble in land prices. This is the repression of labour through wages-and-work; repression through taxation; repression through debt.
We can see there is now also financial repression. Interest rates are so low they are below the rate of inflation. Savers will lose in real terms in an attempt to foster even higher borrowing in the household sector.
The corresponding trend has been a significant rise in the profit share of GDP and a decline in company tax. That is….the repression of households – the repression of labour – has been completed in order to expand both the pretax and after tax share of GDP attributable to corporations.
We truly do serve corporations in this economy. Workers’ material living standards are repressed through wages-and-work, through taxation and now through the destruction of social incomes too. They are repressed financially as well. These pressures are very persistent. They are changing behaviours, expectancies, values and political expression. They are the consequence of Liberal rule. They are getting worse.
At this point the potential for “security” powers to be abused hardly needs overstating. Shame on Labor for waving them through. And of course, shame on Dutton for abusing them.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/federal-police-forced-qantas-to-hand-over-the-private-travel-records-of-an-abc-journalist-20190707-p524xu.html
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
Fairfax-Lite reveals that the AFP demanded Qantas to hand over the private travel arrangements of a senior ABC journalist as part of its controversial investigation into a major national security leak.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/federal-police-forced-qantas-to-hand-over-the-private-travel-records-of-an-abc-journalist-20190707-p524xu.html
David Crowe writes that Josh Frydenberg has warned the tech giants Facebook and Google to expect stricter curbs in the clearest sign yet the government is determined to tackle their might.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/frydenberg-puts-facebook-and-google-on-notice-over-market-power-20190707-p524z2.html
Jordan Baker reports that at some Sydney schools, fewer than one in 10 students choose scripture and many principals are urging for the scheme to be scrapped. Yet still the zealots persist.
https://www.smh.com.au/education/at-some-sydney-schools-fewer-than-one-in-10-students-choose-scripture-20190705-p524kk.html
As is evidenced by culture warrior Connie with this effort.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/a-pox-on-both-their-houses-senator-warns-of-voter-backlash-if-religious-freedoms-not-protected-20190706-p524qe.html
And now we have the A-G saying that cases such as Israel Folau’s would be captured by the government’s proposed religious discrimination bill and he says the legislation will include a “powerful avenue” for people of faith who face “indirect” unfair treatment.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/08/religious-discrimination-bill-will-safeguard-people-of-faith-says-attorney-general
Eryk Bagshaw points to the missing piece of the Australian economic puzzle – firms producing innovative, ground-breaking technologies.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/the-missing-piece-of-the-australian-economic-puzzle-20190704-p5246a.html
Sean Kelly examines Morrison against the characteristics of his Liberal predecessors.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/scott-morrison-is-no-progressive-and-he-s-going-to-change-the-country-20190707-p524up.html
Matt Holden is not at all convinced that the “aspiration” being sprouted by the government should be the whole story.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tax-changes-rely-on-a-narrow-definition-of-aspiration-20190705-p524mv.html
Jobs growth in the retail and hospitality sectors has more than halved since the cuts to Sunday penalty rates, a new study has revealed. Mike Bruce reports.
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/growth-in-jobs-deteriorates-since-penalty-rate-cuts/
Claire Kimball says that in the wake of Woolworths’ decision to axe its involvement in pubs, booze and pokies a brave new world of conscience-led corporate strategy will pose some dilemmas for the people running companies.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/woolies-decision-to-quit-booze-opens-an-interesting-can-of-worms-20190705-p524j8.html
The ABC has complained to the Morrison government about a plan to give $17 million to commercial television networks to bring Australian shows to the Pacific Islands, with the public broadcaster arguing it should receive the funding instead.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/it-should-be-us-abc-pushes-government-to-reconsider-17-million-grant-to-commercial-tv-20190705-p524hn.html
Christopher Knaus reveals that the nation’s biggest health insurers illegally rejected the claims of thousands of sick or injured Australians over seven years.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/08/australias-biggest-private-health-insurers-illegally-rejected-thousands-of-claims
According to Judith Ireland some retirees could be more than $3000 better off a year if the Morrison government cut the deeming rate on their assets by 1.25 per cent, to match the cuts to interest rates over the past four years.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/retirees-stand-to-gain-thousands-if-government-steps-up-on-deeming-rates-labor-says-20190706-p524qa.html
and Sam maiden says that pensioners are being “ripped off” to the tune of $1 billion by the Morrison government’s income test that overestimates seniors’ investment income despite record low interest rates.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/07/07/deeming-credits-scott-morrison/
Doug Dingwall reports that public service bosses are bypassing new workplace negotiations with staff, offering a round of fresh pay rises that don’t require them to navigate the Coalition government’s strict bargaining rules.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6259312/public-service-bosses-avoid-bargaining-as-old-deals-expire/?cs=14225
Ross Buckley tells us why the banks should fear Facebook’s Libra currency.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/why-australia-s-banks-should-fear-facebook-s-libra-20190707-p524xm.html
The Morrison government says it remains committed to a plan criticised as “brutal” to dock the welfare of those who repeatedly fail to pay state fines, and may still proceed with cuts to student payments claimed by the unemployed, the disabled and sole parents.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/07/government-committed-to-brutal-plan-to-dock-welfare-for-non-payment-of-fines
The Conversation explains why there’s no clear need for Peter Dutton’s new bill excluding citizens from Australia.
https://theconversation.com/theres-no-clear-need-for-peter-duttons-new-bill-excluding-citizens-from-australia-119876
Challenging the dogma of GDP and population growth. Michael Bayliss explains.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/challenging-the-dogma-of-gdp-and-population-growth,12870
Australia could be responsible for up to 17 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions by 2030, according to new research.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6261371/australias-share-of-emissions-up-report/?cs=14231
AMP is acing dwindling margins and accelerating outflows as customers and corporate clients including Australia Post abandon it for industry funds, writes Adele Ferguson.
https://outline.com/tvBPxE
Antony Loewenstein explains his position that the only way to ensure a safer Australian society is to legalise and regulate all drugs. This could save lives, earn huge revenue for the state and diminish the power of criminal gangs that make billions of dollars annually from the production and sale of illicit substances.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-s-only-one-way-to-deal-with-drugs-to-make-australia-safer-20190707-p524v1.html
Donald Trump’s White House is “uniquely dysfunctional” and “inept”, according to a cache of scathing leaked memos from the UK’s ambassador in Washington. The documents detail Sir Kim Darroch’s assessments of the Trump administration from 2017 to the present – and could prove highly embarrassing for Britain’s Foreign Office.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/white-house-inept-incompetent-says-uk-ambassador-in-embarrassing-trove-of-leaked-memos-20190707-p524x2.html
Robert Reich asserts that “There is no ‘right’ v ‘left’: it is Trump and the oligarchs against the rest”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/07/donald-trump-oligarchs-democrats-right-left
And for today’s nomination for “Arsehole of the Week” we have . . .
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/driver-clocked-at-155km-h-in-a-60km-h-zone-20190707-p524uo.html
Cartoon Corner
On the road with David Rowe.
From Matt Golding.
Mark David and some budget issues.
Glen Le Lievre with Trump’s America.
From the US
Apart from more tax, work is also becoming less permanent. This call for long service leave to be made portable makes sense in that context. I have seen at least one engineering firm tend to retrench full time staff just before their built up long service leave becomes cashable.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-08/portable-long-service-leave-should-be-national-says-expert/11267374?WT.ac=statenews_vic
Whether one calculates according to catprog’s method or that favoured by briefly the case for further and immediate tax relief for lower to middle incomes is clear, and Rex is wrong about both fairness and economic equality issues relating to the same.
It is also good politics for Labor to keep proposing being forward those Stage 2 cuts ASAP.
Thanks BK. The slide towards serfdom continues. For Labor, if in doubt what to fight, start with the corruption. Even conservatives hate that. Have a good day all.
The repression of labour is ubiquitous and very ingrained. It is no wonder that working people have shown their resentments by rejecting the parties of the status quo – The Liberals, the Greens and Labor – and have lent political support to the anti-hero parties on the Far Right.
The Liberals have been able to exploit the dynamics here. The living standards of working people have been under sustained pressure. The solution to problems for workers is access to more work – access to jobs. The Liberals have depicted themselves as job-creators and Labor as job-destroyers. Enough voters have bought into this that the Liberals have been able to win most elections since 1996. Labor have not helped their cause by campaigning against themselves much of the time. Labor have campaigned against themselves on taxes in particular. The Liberals use tax, the unions and the environment to campaign against Labor on jobs. The Greens use echo campaigns to do the same thing.
This has really hurt Labor very profoundly. The result is the exploitation and repression of working people will now proceed with even greater intensity and effect.
Thanks BK.
Enshrining people’s freedom to be asshole bovver boy douchebags. Sums up Morrison’s government perfectly.
4Corners will be interesting (although probably frustrating) tonight.
Good Morning
Socrates
I disagree with Briefly on tax because the framing is all wrong.
Revenue needs to be raised to pay for services. An example is this fight on pensions. Then we have the underfunding of hospitals.
Labor has to reframe the debate. It has to make the majority who are not wealthy pay tax. That means going for tax increases and not being scared to argue the case.
That means making very specific wealth taxes and calling it that. With the message you too can aspire to be wealthy enough to pay this tax.
Labor had the right direction just they did not go full bore on the equality argument. Instead they think they have to match the LNP. The way to prosecute a wealth tax is to do like Senator Warren is. Make it about the rich companies and banks bad behaviour.
Make it the central piece of the campaign and fully ignite the anger we know is there. Even Christensen crossed the floor on the issue. Do that and don’t get distracted by the LNP scare campaign.
Throw in some goodies as well but be in no doubt. The voters have to be angry and want to vote the government out. Too many Labor people voted for equality for Labor to stop when they fell just one seat short.
For starters don’t listen to the panic by Fitzgibbon due to One Nation. Those voters are voting against elite career politicians.
Meanwhile idiots blaming Labor like a crying baby…
TheOz says:
“Employers and industry groups call for urgent industrial relations reform to lift the “ailing” economy”.
Andrew Earlwood
No one is arguing what a Labor thinks is being argued. What they are arguing is Labor should have opposed because they are an opposition and Labor is supposed to stand up for the progressive taxation system.
That means they should have opposed the third tier tax cuts destroying progressive taxation. They should have voted for the Newstart increase ACOSS calculated of $75. They should have opposed Adani and the opening of the Galilee Basin.
On all these fronts Labor will now lose to the Greens in Victoria. That means another minority Labor government not a majority.
Thank you, BK.
Concetta wants quiet Australians to have the right to blare.
The reality is that working people experience repression at many levels. Their reflex has been to shift their political expression to the Right.
If Labor want to reverse this, they need to show how they will repeal repression. They can start by promising to repeal the repressive tax burden on worker incomes. They can declare they will lift wages as a share of GDP and defend the union movement. They can promise to lift the rate of taxation on corporations. They can promise to create jobs by investing in the environment. They must promise to protect and advance social incomes and social security.
If they do not do these things working people will vote for the Far Right. If they do not do these things, the Right will continue to win.
“Employers and industry groups call for urgent industrial relations reform to lift the “ailing” economy”.
Crooks and Liars.
It took the strong economy only two months after an election and a hundred billion in tax cuts to suddenly become ‘ailing’.
guytaur is demanding that Labor campaign against itself. This is just idiotic. Labor must not fall for it.
Briefly
Yes. As Greek elections have proven. The left buckled to the EU.
Now the PM is out and Yanafaris is back in. Greece back to the same old party in the meantime. All that anger wasted.
Briefly
Now you are lying. I am doing no such thing. I am demanding Labor return to what has won them elections from opposition before.
We are now in need of Whitlam style politics to counter the far right government we have in power.
Labor repeating your prescription of doing the same again with more tax cuts will get it nowhere.
Edit: to be crystal clear for tax cuts vote for the LNP you know they will deliver.
Labor thanks you for your electoral suicide notes Guytaur. These will (hopefully) be ignored.
I wonder if you’d actually realise your feckless stupidity if you travelled and related to ordinary folk outside your bubble occasionally. I’d hope so, but alas, I’m guessing … no.
Andrew Earlwood
You are the one in the bubble. You are making the LNP arguments for them.
Tax cuts!!!!! Core Labor values you cry!!!!
He is also going to disturb our comfort. Strange ‘religious’ thinkers such as CF-W are already emboldened.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/scott-morrison-is-no-progressive-and-he-s-going-to-change-the-country-20190707-p524up.html
Dutton, just like his boss Morrison, has no shame in declaring black is white . We can’t trust them.
Morning all
BK much appreciation for today’s reports.
And Thanks Guytaur for the NRA articles you linked last night.
ABC Four Corners exposes a great LNP rort for mates AFTER the election:
“How taxpayers are funding a huge corporate expansion in the Murray-Darling Basin”
<a href=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-08/taxpayers-helping-fund-murray-darling-basin-expansion/11279468"https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-08/taxpayers-helping-fund-murray-darling-basin-expansion/11279468
Victoria
YW. The US political Overton window is shifting fast.
Gun control looks like a positive for the next election. Amazing. 🙂
Guytaur
The wheels of change do not turn quickly.
But I am confident with focus and hard work by the many, and not just a few, positive changes can be effected over time.
citizen
I have seen an ABC representative explain that their report into #watergate had to go through a lot of steps before it was ready to publish and the holdup wasn’t deliberate. Also, see the complaint from one irrigator that they were only given two days to reply (although I think I’d take that with a grain of salt.
Victoria
Yes. Andrews has proved it in Victoria. Labor should at minimum have his agenda. Federally Labor has in seat terms stayed steady as more voters desert the majors.
To win Labor needs to win some of those angry unengaged voters. They should be taking notes of what is working in the US. We have a similar government with Morrison being our Trump. Religious Freedom is not just about gay people. It’s about hanging onto power and stopping Euthenasia and abortion etc. as distractions while the oligarchs rip us off. The details are different but the general playbook is the same.
https://www.salon.com/2019/07/07/inside-the-serious-eats-struggle-days-hemorrhaging-money-we-were-a-souffle-ready-to-fall/
guytaur says:
Monday, July 8, 2019 at 8:02 am
Briefly
Now you are lying. I am doing no such thing. I am demanding Labor return to what has won them elections from opposition before.
You’re delirious. Labor have won from Opposition 4 times since WW1. 1929, 1972, 1983, 2007.
Labor must start to fight against the repression of working people. They must start to fight hard. They must start to fight for better wages, lower taxes and higher social incomes.
@lizzie
I think two days is plenty especially if they can afford lawyers.
briefly
says:
Monday, July 8, 2019 at 1:37 am
In 1984, average annual earnings according to the ABS were $17,336. Income tax payable would have been $2376, or 13.7 %.
In Feb 2019, average annual earnings were $83,454 and income tax, not including the Medicare Levy would be $18,699, or 22.4%
_____________________________________________
Almost as wrong as saying that under Menzies the median wage paid nil tax. In 1984 the tax rates for someone on $17,336 were:
$4,595 – $19,499
30c for each $1 over $4,595
So that’s an effective tax rate of around: 22%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_Australia#Historical_personal_income_tax_rates_and_brackets
Zoidlord
And as if they didn’t already have their rationale (excuses) worked out!
Of the 4 times Labor has won from Opposition, the government in 1929 soon collapsed in the context of the Great Depression. Gough had to win twice and lasted just 3 years before being deposed in an extra-constitutional quasi coup. The Rudd government lasted just 2 1/2 years before self-detonating.
There is a total sense of unreality concerning Labor’s chances of winning and surviving in office. The Liberals run this country. The results of the last 23 years can be seen in the intensifying repression of working people and the steady attrition of Labor’s plurality. The dysfunction on the Left is of a piece with this.
Briefly
Labor has to reset. Your more tax cuts mantra under the guise of lifting repression from workers is why the LNP win.
briefly
says:
It’s not so easy to find the data for the 1940s, 50s and 60s but I will look more widely and report what I can find.
______________________
So on the basis of no research you claimed that the average wage paid nil income tax? Not very intelligent.
Perhaps this will help you:
Tax Rates For Years 1 July 1950 to 30 June 2009
https://atotaxrates.info/individual-tax-rates-resident/pre-2010-tax-rates/
@lizzie
Indeed!
50 years ago, households on the median wage (less than the average) with a family usually paid almost no net income tax after family rebates were taken into account. The tax system was highly progressive, a feature of the system enacted by Curtin and Chifley.
The tax system has gradually become an instrument in the repression of working people. This is now being perfected by the Liberals and the Greens.
In 1984 the income tax payable on an average wage was $2376. The average wage was $17336. The rate of tax taken was 13.7%. Look it up.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/peter-dutton-approved-budget-savings-the-day-before-condemning-cuts-to-border-patrols-20190705-p524m1.html
Diogenes @ #719 Sunday, July 7th, 2019 – 1:41 am
I saw a comment about the internal polling debacle when the news that they were using Galaxy came to light – so before the election. He didn’t play it up after that because he obviously didn’t want to do more damage to the Labor campaign.
His comment at the time indicated he was pretty horrified they were using such unsophisticated methods to track the canpaign
lizzie @ #905 Monday, July 8th, 2019 – 8:57 am
I’m certain they will have been given plenty of opportunity to comment along the way. They are only whinging about the final version of the program.
Briefly
The point is Labor has just waved goodbye to progressive taxation by voting FOR the 3rd tier tax cuts. They rolled over and said bye bye to progressive taxation.
That’s why people reacted. People saw what Labor has done.
The fact the Greens were able to publish new positions as Shadow Ministers and not spokes people is a serious indictment of Labor selling out. Politics has changed when the Greens think they can do that. They were right. The media let it go.
briefly
says:
In 1984 the income tax payable on an average wage was $2376. The average wage was $17336. The rate of tax taken was 13.7%. Look it up.
___________________________________________
Just plain wrong. Here are the applicable tax tables
$1-$4,595
Nil
$4,595-$19,500
30c for each $1 over $4,595
Simple arithmetic will tell you that the tax would be 3830. With an effective tax rate of 22.04%
Scullin faced internal and external strife (other than the Depression) which makes the ALP shit basket of the last decade look a little mild.