3 days ago
What other things Jim Chalmers could tax as Aussies face big slugs - on top of booze, tobacco, property... (the list goes on!): PETER VAN ONSELEN
Labor is back in power for at least another three years - given the size of its thumping election victory it's more staying there for another six years at a minimum.
And with that certainty comes instant talk of new taxes, despite election commitments to the contrary.
Labor's climate and energy spokesman, Chris Bowen, has said that he's open to a carbon tariff on certain products to help Australia meet its 2030 emissions targets.
Labor backbencher and medical doctor Mike Freelander wants a sugar tax to help tackle obesity and diabetes.
Then there is the super tax set to be legislated when parliament returns at the end of July.
This new tax was at least part of Labor's election manifesto, even if it was hardly a central issue during the campaign.
And there is speculation that negative gearing concessions and perhaps even the capital gains tax (CGT) break too are up for discussion.
The problem with all of the above isn't that changes to the tax and spend system should be off limits.
It's not even that most of the options being looked at weren't flagged at the election, or that a number of them were specifically ruled out.
The real issue is that what is being looked at is piecemeal and not part of a proper tax reform package that balances tax increases with tax cuts, thereby improving the efficiency of the system at the same time as ensuring that government taxes and spending don't just keep increasing.
The pre-election budget already highlighted that the tax-to-GDP ratio is at near record levels, with spending as a percentage of GDP even higher.
The government uses the latter to justify more taxes, rather than as a reason to stop the record spending because it's unsustainable.
I have no problem in principle with sin taxes such as on sugary products. They mirror other sin taxes on tobacco, alcohol or on industry designed to push down emissons.
There is a logic to such a shake-up, as long as cutting other taxes forms part of the discussion.
But Australia has shied away from wholesale tax reform ever since Kevin Rudd ignored many of Ken Henry's recommendations in his 2009 tax reform paper, and when Malcolm Turnbull junked the tax and federation white papers Tony Abbott commissioned before losing the prime ministership in a coup.
Boomers with more than $3million in super are set to be slugged if the government can get its proposal past the Senate at the end of July
Instead these taxes are embraced not as part of a wider review to improve efficiencies and better target who and what to tax, but as a simple revenue grab to keep chasing growing spending which needs to be reined in.
The design of the superannuation tax will, in decades to come, turn it into a virtual inheritance tax, given that it's not indexed and will over time engulf many more Australians ' super savings than it will at the point of implementation.
The flagging of other taxes to be debated and likely introduced in coming budgets is a sign that Labor is confident in its victory.
The size of its victory will neuter the Coalition for years to come.
But that confidence should extend to emulating the reforming credentials of the Hawke and Howard administrations.
Reforming the GST is another area of tax that needs to be looked at, again with tax cuts in other areas (such as on income taxes for example) as part of the discussion.
Let's hope that the growing calls within Labor for higher taxes isn't just as a case of Labor's back - and so are the taxes.
