Fair share tax call

High-earning Australians should be hit with a millionaires tax to make them pay their fair share, unions say. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) will debate the topic at its national congress in Sydney next week, but the government has already poured cold water on the proposal. ACTU assistant secretary Tim Lyons says a millionaires tax – modelled on the Obama Administration’s Buffett Rule – would shift the tax burden off the shoulders of low and middle-income households by making wealthy Australians pay more. ‘‘The income tax system is absurdly inequitable,’’ he said.