Paul Keating once noted that broadening the tax base meant the many pay more so that the few can pay less. That's not ideology, it's arithmetic. This was borne out soon afterwards when the Liberals imposed a GST on the overwhelming bulk of what everyone spent on daily living while at the same time reducing company tax by 16.6%. Mr Greed has been seeking ever since to make the many pay even more still as the few pay less. Naturally the few don't express it honestly as Mr Keating did but they bury the grab in a whole lot of mealy-mouthed stuff about making the tax system simpler and collecting more revenue.

OK, here's a way to make it simpler. First, abolish the GST, what Tony Abbott would (had he been more honest) have condemned as a "Great Big Tax". Second, restore wholesale sales taxes scaled to address social goals to the direct benefit of the many. Third, load income tax rates to distinguish "personal exertion" and "unearned" income", where personal exertion means personal, hands-on creation of goods and services and "unearned" means earned, but not by the taxpayer.

Sparkyq has it right, tweak it here tweak it there, make it more complicated, more accountants needed, more tax specialists, more tax lawyers ... nothing much really changes.

The tax act is thousands of pages long. Complication simply allows the unscruplous a hole to hide behind. Scrap income tax, tax land and maybe capital and consumption. The baby, bathwater and bath need to be thrown out.