Business groups back Chalmers’ credit card tax payment delay, exposing the Big Four banks’ influence over private-enterprise advocacy groups.
Business groups’ high-fiving of Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ decision to pick up the tab for delaying the elimination of credit card payments for settling tax bills has exposed the extent to which the Big Four oligopoly has captured once-proudly independent private-enterprise advocacy groups.
As millions of Australia’s mortgage holders and merchants are bled out by an ever-increasing cost spiral through a combination of interest rate hikes and transactional fees, the luxury of being able to settle a debt with the Australian Taxation Office using expensive short-term plastic credit has apparently almost become some sort of human right.