The Howard Government has to cut personal taxes. It is the area where after eight, and now 11 years if Howard goes the full term,where there has been no reform.

The only reform of the taxation system in Australia was the introduction of a new tax the Goods and Services Tax, which came in at 10%.

Therefore personal tax rates can be cut by atleast 10% to get things back to the year 2000.

The next thing the Government and the author needs to look at is stopping bracket creep.

The money is pouring into the treasury coffers with the result the Howard Government cannot deflect the criticism that it is the highest taxing government in Australian history.

If Australians wake up to the taxation issue the Howard Government will be thrown out of office.

For this lack of debate on personal taxation I lay the blame at the feet of the Labor Opposition, they should have done something but have refused to push at alternative line.

This debate is the one Australians need to have. It is long overdue.

The more productive private enterprise becomes the more Govt Bureauracies grow.There is no way any Govt will index the progressive tax system.It is their surrupticious way of just taking more without any electoral backlash.I'd like to see the low paid workers in private enterprise get rewarded.They are used and abused by both parties.No one earning less than $30,000.oo pa should pay any tax.People should be taxed more at a consumption level and less on wage/income level.

I totally agree with Arjay on the following, "No one earning less than $30,000.oo pa should pay any tax". It is ridiculous to tax people below this level, when most of them have to accept some sort of government subsidy to make ends meet - the money just goes around in circles.

It is easy to make high income earners look hard done by if you focus on income tax in isolation, while studiously ignoring the regressive indirect taxes that are levied by the various layers of government and the quite legal tax avoidance methods that are available to the better off, such as family trusts, negative gearing, and superannuation tax concessions worth far more than the full pension. According to newspaper reports last year the tax system is actually quite flat if we look at total taxes paid as a percentage of income and downright regressive as we reach the highest income bands and the ability to use the avoidance measures kicks in. The greatest injustice is done to low income earners. People don't have the capacity to pay income tax on money they need for bare subsistence. Pretending otherwise allows the Hon. Mr. Fifield and his friends to impose truly confiscatory effective marginal rates on the working poor in the guise of withdrawing welfare payments. This should be the first area of reform.