"A politician is a politician is a politician. All of them are increasingly irrelevant to our well being because they are not interested in it. We should be looking at ways to bypass the lot of them."
Amen to that Leigh, although I haven't the faintest idea of how the Australian people can be motivated enough to bring an end to our current two party political representation. The whole system has become a joke with ordinary citizens bearing the brunt every time. I suppose a pessimist might say that's our lot in life....to be born, pay taxes and die, yet it's optimism that keeps the dream of a better life alive. It's why struggling political groups such as People Power spring up from time to time. The optimist among them strives for "something better" but doesn't quite know how to obtain it.
Perhaps you're right Leigh in saying that nobody can answer my question pertaining to Labor and the GST, however I'm certain it's crossed the minds of both Labor and the Coalition and will raise it's head at some stage in the run-up to the election this year.

I don't have the faintest idea how to bring about a change to our two-party, tweedlie dum and tweedle system, Aime.

Any solution needs the participation of Australian citizens and, as most of them are self-interested duds, there probably will never be any change.

I don't seriously believe that all the Labor Premiers would be too keen on comitting collective political suicide in this way.

A Federal Labor Government will put more pressure on states to change their governments in any case.

There is no great need for extra Federal Government revenue. Fiscal surpluses have led to discussions about tax decreases, not taxation increases. The problem maybe more an embarrassment of riches, There is speculation that the government will not be able to offer more income tax relief because this extra fiscal stimulus could feed inflation. This would have the flow on effect of increasing interest rates. Similarly no government would want to put up the GST if it flowed on to inflation.

The Federal Government is running massive budget surpluses. So unless Howard embarks on yet another pre-election spending spree later this year, a Rudd-Labor Government has enough revenue at its disposal to last awhile. Admittedly, Rudd would be tempted to rectify a decade of underinvestment in education, health care, infrastructure, renewable energies etc. by the Coalition. However, I suspect Labor's desperation to prove itself fiscally responsible will prevail. I can also envisage the State Labor governments pressuring Kev into addressing the vertical fiscal imbalance in line with his promise to reform federalism, but I doubt Canberra will ever completely loosen its grip over the purse strings.

Wayne Swan has been banging on about much-needed tax reform for some time, so we might even see some tax cuts under a Labor Government. Whether this could mean giving with one hand (income tax reductions) and taking away with the other (GST increase) remains to be seen.

The original proposition of this thread implies that there is a difference between Liberal and Labor on these matters. In who's dreams?