Foreign Aid Tax Persuasive Speech

Economics lecturer Chris Hey wrote a piece for a Melbourne newspaper on the idea of a foreign aid tax, arguing that Australia could do more to assist developing countries by expecting all Australians to contribute. His argument is a very strong case for more action and uses persuasive language to get the point across effectively.
Hey immediately argues that the aid tax is a good idea and criticises governments for not doing enough, aiming to have readers thinking that more action is needed. The headline poses a direct question to readers and encourages them to consider what it is that the author might want them to help with. This is designed to encourage the audience to read on to find out more. Hey then tells the audience in the first paragraph

He says it would be done in a ‘fiscally responsible’ way, which makes it sound like a careful approach so people don’t worry about losing lots of money. The focus on the means testing achieves the same result. When he says that rich people would be ‘giving a little back’ he makes it sound like the overall contributions are really small and nothing to worry about. He also then confronts readers with the ‘moral’ arguments, and poses questions to challenge readers. The repetition of ‘How can we justify’, ‘How can we do nothing …’ makes readers think there is no other choice and urges them to act. This is basically a guilt trip but it’s effective because it’s more emotive than the section that uses just dry statistics. Furthermore, using Bono from U2 makes people realise that this is a big issue and that if pop stars are involved then we all should be making an effort. He closes this section by focusing again on self-interest, arguing that lots more jobs could be created. He says that ‘hundreds’ of people already rely on this industry and ‘imagine’ what we could achieve if we donated more – this makes people feel optimistic about the benefits of action rather than focusing on