All the polls suggested the Keating government would be finished at the 1993 election – until Opposition Leader John Hewson launched a 650-page policy document called “Fightback!”.
Robert Breunig, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University et Kristen Sobeck, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Six years of Coalition government has had little impact on the tax system. It’s not clear whether a Labor government would be any different.
The Morrison and Berejiklian governments might be of the same stripe but, with both facing elections in the first half of 2019, their interests rub up against each other uncomfortably.
NSW Liberal Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said after the meeting that “all states and territories put forward the strong view” the bill must include this.
As speculation mounts there will be another leadership challenge sooner rather than later, the government has finally lost its bid to award tax cuts to big companies.
To make a concession to the coal lobby would flout the technology-neutral foundation of the NEG and have much more serious implications than throwing in some money to boost the GST pool.
The government’s plan released by Treasurer Scott Morrison on Thursday, would ensure the fiscal capacity of all states and territories was “at least the equal of NSW or Victoria, whichever is higher”.
The complexity of the reforms might jeopardise the necessary cooperation of overseas businesses, and place consumers at risk of paying wrongly charged GST.
Amazon has barred Australian shoppers from its US site, rather than contend with new GST rules on overseas purchases. But don’t expect a stampede at your local branch of Harvey Norman as a result.
Kevin Davis, Australian Centre for Financial Studies
Applying the GST to banking has much sounder economic underpinnings than the current levy, would have raised much more revenue, and would have applied to all banks rather than just the big banks.