Instituting a GST, or hiking the one with which we are already lumbered, is a device for making the many pay more so that the few can pay less. This was its purpose when the Howard government, with the aid of rogue Democrat senators defying their own party's constitution and the expectations of those who elected them, instituted it while SIMULTANEOUSLY reducing the company tax rate by 16.5% from 36c in the dollar to 30c in the dollar.

Now the entitlement community, with their fully-owned party having lied itself into office, are circling around the existing GST demanding that it be increased at the cost of the plebs, to fund further cuts in the collected taxation (excluding the taxes which their bought politicians arrange for them to be able to dodge) of those who amass great wealth while personally creating none whatsoever.

The way the Abbott-Hockey government are showing that they intend to swing it is to slash the states' share of the national tax take so that the state governments, to fulfill their commitments, will be driven to clamour for increased GST-based funding. The direct outcome is an even further increase in the transfer of wealth from those who have least to those who have most including those who have created no wealth at all.

The answer: take a leaf out of the Libs’ 1975 book, block supply and force an election.

I think the LNP could have secured at least four terms if they had rejected the last parliamentarian payrise. Asking the whole country to tighten their belts to make up for the criminal Labor wastes & then accepting massive pay rises was exactly the wrong thing to do. If this Government is short of money then they should drop Government pay rates. It would be good for Australia & it would show Australian that their Government is genuine.

Peter, the total turnover of shares, currency and derivatives in Aust is $135 trillion pa. Just a small turnover tax of 0.01% will raise $135 billion in tax. Cannot our rich afford a $1 in $1000 tax ?

The other big issue is the selling off of our Govt Banks. We no longer create any of our new money debt free via Govt funded infrastructure. All our money is now created as debt and mostly by OS Central banks. We should never have sold these Govt banks since they kept our taxes lower.

Until a truly fair tax system is introduced, one where the wealthy don't get to dodge their responsibilities, then we're stuck with this total mash-up, and the Neo-cons, Liberals et. al. are driving us down the road to the New Feudalism, and we're already half-way there!

After all this time, Arjay, you still don't get it.

>>Just a small turnover tax of 0.01% will raise $135 billion in tax. Cannot our rich afford a $1 in $1000 tax ?<<

It is not "the rich" who will pay a tax on turnover in the derivative market. We all will.

Mind you, you would already know this if you had the faintest idea what derivatives are. You seem to think they are some kind of commodity that only "the rich" buy and sell.

Bizarre.

Pericles,
Yes, it's us who always end up footing the bill. That's why we need a flat tax FULL STOP !
No gobbledeegook about not understanding how the system works, we do know how it works & in whose favour. That's why the greed mongers don't support tax reform. Get rid of NG, introduce a transaction tax & be done with it. Those who are already rich are rich enough, those who don't have much can do with more. Imagine what Australia could be like with a more contend society ? The hangers -on will be forced to put in an effort but that can be achieved via non-military National Service.