Labor says adopting the "Warren Buffett rule" to stop Australian high income earners from avoiding their tax obligations will be enormously popular, but won't commit to it just yet.
The ALP national conference has agreed only to consider an Australian version of the rule - named after by US billionaire Warren Buffett and which proposes imposing a minimum 30 per cent rate on people making more that $US1 million a year.
Federal Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese says it's about fairness, not "the politics of envy".
"If you earn a certain amount of income, then you should pay some minimum of tax and shouldn't be able to reduce your tax to zero," he told ABC television on Sunday.
"Because what that does is place the burden on ordinary PAYE taxpayers and what (the) conference has decided is we would give consideration to that when we are in government."
Mr Albanese said Labor couldn't get to a stronger policy position than that without the aid of Treasury analysis.
"This will have enormous support in the community," he added.
The so-called rule emerged after Mr Buffett wrote in 2011 that it was unfair he paid a lower federal tax rate than his secretary.
The Australia Institute think tank has proposed a 35 per cent minimum tax rate for those earning more than $300,000 a year.
This would raise an additional $2.5 billion annually from the top one per cent of income earners.
Mr Albanese said 75 Australian millionaires earned a combined $195 million in 2011/12 but paid effectively no tax - he pegged their payment at $82 - after bringing in lawyers and accountants to reduce their bills.
"People know there is something wrong when your average teacher is paying more than people who are earning millions of dollars each year," he said.
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