Hasbeen you seem to have missed my point, I want to isolate those little people from any rises.
DP yes quite right.
As a youth I could have pointed to far worse conditions for battlers than today.
Tax reform under any government, note election coming, is needed.
We have constantly, drifted towards being too kind with welfare.
Do not like that?
Well in truth the center and just left of center must confront this.
To waste welfare is to leave reform to Abbott, he would be much harsher.
I agree with his plan to get work out of refugees, now be realistic!
The costs are crippling us, the need to stop the flood can be seen by any one with eyes.
Any tax reform MUST plug the spending leaks in every place we find them.
Then the extra tax will not be just more wasted money.

MOTL, I believe the TT style tax was trialed back in the 80's amd it collected plenty of tax.

As for your concerns about margins, it has also been suggested that a TT of just 0.2% would be sufficient to replace all other taxes.

However, in order to fix anything, you must first stop the bleeding, and it is the bleeding (continued waste) that is more of a problem than our tax system at the moment.

Put simply, our missmanagement of tax payers funds has outgrown the funds themselves, and this is the main reason we are in strife.

Step one, stop the waste.

Step two, introduce a better, fairer tax system.

Because even if we do come up with a better tax system, if the waste is not controlled, this system too will one day suffer the same fait.

Another option is to tip the system upside down, and reward the tax payer, for paying tax, rather than penalizing them as is often the case now, as I have always thought that retirement should be based on the amount one contributes, rather than penalizing them for their success, which is often the case nowadays.

As far as work for welfare goes, we simply need to value add some of what we sell as raw materials, then buy back in the value added form.

It's not rocket science, but the problem is that those on welfare, almost half, also vote and governments are ST scared of that.

You must be just a bit of a kid Pete, [lucky you], that or your memory ain't too hot. You did not go back far enough with your low tax comparison.

When I got my first pay packet in dollars, early 60s I think, [remember when we were paid in money?], it was about, or just under the average wage. For some reason I checked it thoroughly. My tax on that average wage was just 7.5%, quite a bit less than today, Hospital & medical benefits family rate, [insurance] cost which had been less than 4 shillings were now 39 cents.

I also remember the interest rate on my home loan was 4.25%, & that interest, & medical insurance payments were tax deductible.

At that same time, a pass book savings a/c with the same bank paid 3.25% interest. With a high percentage of their business being housing, the banks were paying their operating costs, & making their profit from that 1% difference.

I know it's hard to believe, but in those days bank staff, & even public servants, were actually trying to help you, when you talked to them. How times have changed.

Pete has told us he is in his eighty,s.
You do not have to go back to the sixty,s to find higher tax,s.
Howard taxed us at a much higher rate than today.

No government can lower taxes, while at the same time waste them time and time again.

It is this continued waste, combined with the illegals debacle that has caused our position.

And yes Belly, taxes were higher under Howard, but then again, he started with what was then a record deficit and left with some twenty billion in the bank, not to mention he had our boarders under control.

As I say, stop the waste, then fix taxation.

A number of poster have taken up my call to save waste.
But so far, apart from Rechtubs remark about boats and half true, one re Howard,s record, ignoring both the taxs and peak of the export of minerals took place then.
No one says how, see Abbott is cutting refugee numbers , not sure he will, and talking about stopping the boats.
Not sure he can do that.
How do we cut spending?
Surely not education/health/defense??
Why not start with welfare reforms, we approach a day it must take place.
I find it increasingly hard to think Abbott is mentioned in the same sentence as Howard.
Abbott continues to be Labors best hope