Alan B, my understanding is that the 'claims' that the highest income earners pay the most tax does not refer to the percentage of their individual incomes but the percentage of the total government income from income taxation. Hence you hear things like 50% of the income tax revenue is paid by 15% of taxpayers. i.e. those with the most incomes.

When Labor makes empty promises they're a 'Pledge', when the Coalition makes promises they're empty promises.
The outcome however is that nothing really is done to address the real problems, Tax & Welfare reform & economic stimulus because the Public Service sucks up all the funding before the pollies can make up their mind what to spend it on.

individual,
The point of economic stimulus is that it's extra money going into the economy. If it's funded by cutting funding elsewhere, it's not really a stimulus.

Aidan,
I know what you mean & that's the traditional spin of throwing money at something to be seen of doing "something".
Economic stimulus by way of funding is a proven waste. What's needed to stimulate first the local economy which will then flow over into the national economy, is to reduce the exorbitant Government fees & charges & leave everything else. More funding hasn't gotten us anywhere has it ? Funding has to come from enter[rise not handouts. Freezing Govt bureaucrat salaries is a good start. Can anyone really honestly argue that they don't get enough now ? I for one would like to see some proof of their worth.
Of course this is seen as an outrageous suggestion to take the leap away from the traditional & perpetual status quo but surely, to keep going that proven ineffective & enterprise killing way of the recent past should be enough to make anyone try a new direction.
Wage earners should be on a flat tax rate & those with high salaries should be on a higher rate.
Company tax is too generous & needs a little lift. If we want a better economic future then keeping on going the same tired old way is not the way.
Constantly asking for higher wages is nothing short of economic suicide. I have yet to see higher/improved productivity after a pay rise. People spending money is an economic stimulus. People having to skimp & save to make ends meet is the negative opposite of economic stimulus.
Doing "something" is vastly different to actually changing policies & make them work for the better of all & not just non-productive bureaucracy.

individual,
>I know what you mean & that's the traditional spin of throwing money at something to be seen of doing "something"
No, it's not that at all. It's that to address the problem of insufficient private spending, the government has to put more money into the economy.

>Economic stimulus by way of funding is a proven waste.
Proven by whom?
I'm not suggesting the government should waste money. There's plenty of useful stuff it could spend money on. But failing to stimulate the economy (and hence perpetuating the situation where lots of people are idle) is an even bigger waste than spending the money on useless stuff.

>What's needed to stimulate first the local economy which will then flow over into the national economy, is to reduce the exorbitant Government fees & charges & leave everything else
That's one approach that could work, but there are some obvious problems with it. For a start, most of those fees and charges are imposed by the state government not the Federal government. Also, reducing those fees and charges may not be a sufficiently big stimulus, whereas the Federal government always has the ability to spend more. And cutting fees and charges gives the government no direct benefit in addition to the economic stimulus, whereas higher government spending gives it the benefit of whatever it spends the money on.

You are obviously under the impression that those in the public sector are overpaid. But do you actually have any evidence for this?

Regarding the effects of pay rises, the stimulus results in more production (due to more people working) rather than more productivity from each worker. Having said that, productivity related pay deals are common so I'm surprised you've not seen the results!

Aidan, bureaucrats in the Public Service are overpaid, full stop ! Federal, State & Local Government. Here are some of the lesser paid.
Can anyone tell us what we get from them in return ? For example the ABC CEO who is on over $900,000 & there are the 'silent' others.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull: $517,338
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten: $368,224
Mr Turnbull's chief of staff Drew Clarke: $691,200
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian: $377,780
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk: $385,719
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews: $380,000
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr: $299,000
Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan: $772,920
Australian Statistician David Kalisch: $705,030
Australian Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg: $731,000
Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers: $522,240
Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs: $417,800
http://www.apsc.gov.au/about-the-apsc/the-commission/enterprise-agreement-2015

Add to this list the absolute waste due to bureaucratic incompetence. Bureaucrats must be made accountable & be either demoted or moved sideways or both when failing in their duties.
All explanations defending the status quo of the tax system are stock-standard spin but are not fact but are being used to retain status quo at all cost because a lot of bureaucrats make a lot of money & they don't want to risk their snouts being banned from the trough.
Do you know how much Facebook costs us in the Public Service ?
There are no difficulties in making our tax system more efficient & creating economic stimulus.
The word difficulties is nothing more than an excuse to prevent reform because status quo is extremely profitable for those who fight to retain it. They can rely on the low paid workers to keep struggling on so all that needs is empty promises from the Coalition or pledges as in the Labor jargon.
The defenders of this corrupt system always portray everything as more complex than it is. Tax reform & accountability aren't at all complex, we just need bureacrats with a conscience.