Belly a large amount of our taxes go to assist the wrong people and projects.
Why are our taxes used to assist anyone who have not contributed to paying tax in Australia?
How and why do the bulk of refugees arriving on our shores benefit to our taxes when they have never contributed any tax money in the coffers? Instead they are provided with benefits which many Australians do not get.
Australians who have worked and paid income tax then with the economic times as we are have been seeing for some time now is increased unemployment and people loosing the employment and incomes resulting in many facing homelessness and evictions.
Refugees appear to be provided with tax payer accommodation, yet very few if any Aussies are afforded the same.
I don't deny that there are some Aussies out there who are happy to bludge on the rest of us but I doubt that the numbers would be as many as we are led to believe.

In my view, a transaction tax is wortthy of serious consideration.

After all, any other form of tax is only ever a 'one off' tax, so it is limited wholly and solely to the amount of money one has to spend.

A TT on the other hand, is a tax on money and, money can be used time and time again, so a much better option is to collect a VERY SMALL tax for each and every transaction.

Say a TT tax of just 2%, as It wouldn't matter if you earned $40,000 per year, or $300,000 per year, the most you will ever pay is just 2%.

However, because your dollars get passed around from account to account, they just keep generating taxes, even those so call tax havens would pay tax.

All winnings, races, lotto, everything would be taxed as it passes through your bank account.

It simply has to be considered, as the abolishment of income tax would provide an enormous immediate, ongoing cash boost to the economy.

We should also consider a tax rebate system, whereby every purchase you make incurrs a 10%flat tax, then, once you produce your receipt to say Medicare, or perhaps you could mail them in, you get an immediate refund for the additional 8%, paid into your bank account, thus also collecting the 2% tax.

This would help stop the black economy as very few would make a purchase without requesting a receipt.

Either way, taxing money is better than taxing people.

Butcher,
I think something along the lines of what you are suggesting has been floated before. Not sure, but I imagine that your tax would encounter a bit of resistance. For example, it unfairly taxes those businesses which have a high turnover relative to their margin and favours those who don't. Imagine the speculators on the stock market squeal. (I seem to be arguing for it now) But seriously, there are many businesses who sell items with margins as low as that.

When thinking about tax reform, one needs to think about what the goals are.
- Do you wish to favour any particular groups? i.e. poor, wealthy, big business, small business, large asset holders?
- Do you wish to encourage a particular behaviour? Spending, saving, eating habits, gambling, environmental conservation, etc. Or do you trust the 'free market' to sort it out for itself.
- What role should government play in people's lives? The more you wish a government to do for you, the higher the required level of tax.

I know these are fairly broad, big picture questions, but whenever the subject of taxation is breached, these questions invariably come up. It is the single largest, most complicated and most contested area of the law for exactly these reasons.
Gypsy,
Your claims are a little simplistic. I don't imagine the refugees here are living a life of luxury. A large portion of the costs involved here are on account of bureaucracy.

Make no mistake. Bureaucracy is the condom on the penis of progress!

Belly,
Glad to hear you are not advocating the death of the fresh produce farmer.
I invite criticisms to my idea of a sliding scale of GST, based on how important the item is to a reasonable standard of living. Happy to give some elaboration on the idea if there is interest.

What ever ideas we come up with it is unlikely we have the answer.
But I would include welfare in the reforms.
For that reason I would give Pay as you earn relief to the lower income earners to supplement them for increased GST.
I too think within trade agreements we have signed and benefited from, we should use the GST as a local tax, to support farming and manufacturing when possible.
AS the tax is spent, we should re view what on.
And my long wished for work for real wages to pay back the dole, can help.
I think it would reduce fraud and should not compete with existing jobs but must return dividends to tax payers.
We have too many taxes, in my view SOME kill incentive.
Extreme tax on fuels is stopping weekend tourism, a once benefit to many towns.
Get rid of some tax that actually takes more money to collect than it brings in and make a standard tax system that can work all the time.
Gypsy to some extent you are right, we do pay SOMETIMES more to refugees than our own.
But while it may be too generous we can not starve them.

Sorry Belly old mate. I can see where you're going, & why, but there is no chance of me wanting to see any tax changes.

You see I'm bl00dy sure this government would definitely shaft all the little people in any changes. It would not be unintended consequences, but hidden rip off traps with her ladyship.

Assuming we get rid of her, I'm afraid I would not trust the likely replacement, particularly as many of you would have an ex investment banker, [read crook in my language] in the job.

It never ceases to amaze me how people these days whinge about the amount of tax they pay.

Compared to what the average person was paying 30 years ago, we are now paying a heck of a lot LESS in tax (taking the GST into consideration as well). The overall tax percentage my business pays is the LOWEST it's been for decades ..... by a LONG way. My personal taxation is a WAY lower percentage of my income compared to decades ago.

But still the whingers complain.

They want the health services, the roads, the communications, the education, the defence, the various infrastructure etc etc etc. BUT, they don't want to pay for it. Yep, they are true Aussie whingers.