Fixing a flawed levy on the banks could leave Australia’s budget billions of dollars better off

Australia's banks have been given an easy ride at taxpayers' expense. And economists Chris Richardson argues the banking levy is a fraction of what it should be

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The budget would be billions of dollars better off every year if Australia's biggest banks were forced to pay taxpayers for an unspoken guarantee that taxpayers will bail them out in a crisis.

Days out from a fourth Labor budget that will show a looming decade of deficits, there is a growing urgency to make bolder decisions as part of a wider audit of how we tax and spend.