doog

The states might feel the electoral backlash from a higher or broader GST, but they would also be the beneficiaries. All GST is redistributed to the states.

Give the opposition blocked budget measures to cut spending, raising the GST and broadening the tax base could do something to reduce the Commonwealth’s deficit (the GST money would go to the States, but the Commonwealth could cut its other transfers to them). In economic terms GST is a pretty efficient tax, and broadening the base would make it more efficient still. It would also give the states more control over how they spend their money.

The big problem is that GST is regressive, taking proportionately more from those on low incomes. So any GST changes should be accompanied by compensation for those on low incomes, by raising benefits and cutting income tax at the bottom of the scale. With those safeguards in place, it seems a reasonable idea to me – its definitely worth having the debate, at any rate.

As a West Australian, though, I’d like to see a fairer mechanism for distributing GST revenues. At the moment, about 70c in every dollar of GST raised in WA is redistributed to the other states and territories

Reading the OP, it is more of the superficial, mud-slinging stuff expected of the NSW 'Watermelon' Greens. Nothing practical, no ideas and not even the vaguest pretence of considering the broad impact of policies.

However, for those who would really like an open discussion, as a first priority I would like to see the government prefer its own contractors, who take hundreds of millions from taxpayers, to be those companies paying full tax in Australia.

It is difficult to overcome international tax rules and agreements, as both sides of government should agree.

It is very poor of globals like the consultancy, accounting, audit and IT corporates such as Microsoft - who have benefitted greatly from outsourcing government operations and have even been allowed a hand in recommending the retrenchment of public servants to gain their work - have structured themselves to avoid paying taxes in Australia.

BTW, the hugely expensive stuff-up of Qld Health's staff payment system was by a well-known global and the deficiencies linger on years later. What a pity the globals never seem to review and recommend a change to outsourcing.

Many reluctant early retirees who remain unemployed years after imposed redundancy, especially sole earners for families who were hoping to build up their financial base after raising children, would be very angry indeed that the greedy globals who edged them out of their employment (proposed and encouraged by Labor's Keating and others to follow), do not pay tax.

Increase the GST? Reluctantly I might agree, with the second proviso that Government do much more to reduce the politically correct victim industries that truly suck and are such a drain on the federal budget. No-one can even tot up the direct and indirect feed of taxpayers' $$ to multiculturalism, for example. What about indigenous, where almost everyone is somehow a contractor to government and the alleged problems increase! -Not unexpected where government has an open chequebook.

doog, do mind providing a few examples to back up your statement:
Abbott spends it like a drunken sailor on a binge in subic bay.

Do you guys really think Labor doesn't want a higher GST? Come on, they want it every bit as much but they don't have the guts to say it out loud.

Let's see how long it takes Plebisek (the likely new leader of Labor, come election time) to denounce raising the GST with a promise to kill it off if it happens.

If we don't want the GST raised we have to make it clear to all the politicians they won't get elected if they go down that track.

Has not anyone thought that governments pay out far more wages and social service benefits than taxes could possibly take in. That many corporations earn less of a private sector income to cover wage liabilities, therefore running at a lose. Governments constant media reporting of debt, debt, Greek debt debit culture allows populations to believe governments don't merely create bank credits to subsidise the difference.
Many humans believe in an existence of a magic god, that because a group of people act like they are in communication with a god, people blindly follow what they say as being truthful. I am stating these same ideas are applied to governments where by going on about debt, populations blindly believe debt "without a doubt" must exist.
After taxes, wages are often spent on purchasing already built buildings, often paid for with bank loans. After taxes, wages pay for rent and loan repayments, and or saved for some future reason. Other than food and occasional motor vehicle, money doesn't circulate as capitalism pretends to create company profits and taxes. Capitalism seems to perfect to be true. Give it month and tax issues will have faded away in to the next fantasy media distraction.

The fact that Labor is already talking about a much nastier tax on CO2 if they get back in is much more concerning than a rise in or broadening of the GST. We have some control over how much GST we pay by buying only things we need; we have no contol over a carbon tax, which increases everything and doesn't make a damn of difference to anything except, perhaps, get a few useless Laborites recognised by those other Robber Barons and would-be World Dictators, the United Nations.

At least the GST stays in Australia, and doesn't end up being wasted in Bongo Bongo land by people dozing under palm trees, or in the coffers of corrupt UN members with a penchant for palace building.

A 10% GST is behind the rest of the world by decades. As long as South Australia's dim-witted Labor government is mentored in how it spends its share, changes to the GST is the obvious way to go.

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but we are only at the start of this tax
and spending crisis. Capitalism has functioned during the last few
hundred years because it has always, except for a few short
depressions, relied upon GDP to repay its interest and capital borrowings
as has government.

With world wide decline in GDP the ability to repay is also declining.
This decline is permanent, although governments have turned a blind eye,
and government intends to press on with outstanding loans as though
nothing has happened.
The cause is the rising cost of energy and the implications are serious.
Unless we devise a much cheaper energy source, we will have to reduce
our standard of living and change the nature of capitalism.
It could mean that large scale capitilism will dissapear and everything will become local.

If you want to see a realtime example watch Greece.
Greece is just the second country to reach this state and look for
symptoms such as younger people leaving the cities and towns for the
country cousins and working the land.
Anothe symptom is a lower number of car sales and petrol consumption.
Whoops for Greece those things are already happening.
For other countries such as the US and Europe they are alreadt seeing
lower car sales and less miles driven per year.
In the US the large shopping malls are closing. There is even a web
site for closed malls.

http://deadmalls.com/

Google closed malls, interesting.
Watch for the first Aussie mall to close.
These are some of the symptoms to watch for & no doubt there are
others.