Make that 'tit' not 'tot'.

Awww...I quite like "tot-for-tat".

And although I know you've all soared to the heights coming up with "Abbottphobia" - I'm sure if you all try a teensy bit harder, there are other pearls of wit lurking in right-wing land.

With the congregation of Christian fundamentalists and happy clappers meeting in Sydney, no its not The Hillsong Church rally at ANZ Stadium, that was last week. No, its The Mad Monk, aka Tax Em' Tony, and "his" band of devotees meeting at Mick's place. Just like the Hillsong convention, 'Where is the next buck coming from', will be top of the agenda.The big danger from this talk fest could well be any leader opposing a hike in the GST may well be seen as a blasphemer and a heretic, given that the new buzz for GST is 'Good State Tax'. If thou opposest thou GST increase thou cup shall not runneth over, particularly in the health care area, in fact they tell us our hospitals will be broke in no time, danger, danger, warning warning!
With so many experts singing the praises of GST there is a distinct possibility that rational debate will be losts in the stampede to hike the so call efferent tax. I question is a hike in the GST the only real answer, and is this tax all that efferent, and is the health care problem simply manufactured by Abbott pulling $80 billion from the states.
Under the heading of 'Consumption tax is popular but not perfect' Matt Wade in yesterdays SMH highlighted some of the problems associated with hiking the GST.
In point form Wade had this to say;

* The GST is regressive, it hits the poor.
* GST compensation can distort, an incentive to keep people out of the workforce.
^ GST affects consumption patterns, over time GST revenue declines as a percentage of GDP.
* GST and the digital economy, it drives people towards the non GST economy and impacts on business competitiveness.

There are other downsides to the GST, including businesses avoiding the tax for their own benefit. I also question where did the magic number of 15% come from.

Paul,
I do not pretend to know what the best way to raise revenue is
for the whole economy. What I do agree with is that the whole taxing
regime has to be studied as one.
GST cannot be studied without considering its effect on other taxes,
and other taxes on the GST.

The old mantra of "Soak the Rich" does not work either because they
do not have enough money to meet the governments need.
So if the poor, the middle classes & the rich do not have the money
where do you go ?

No, there has to be a reduction in government expenditure.
However, there is an uproar when that is even whispered.
Well the political class will have to get their heads together very
soon or the next crunch will hit them and they will be desperate
trying to borrow money to pay the interest bill.

The next financial crunch cannot be too far away, perhaps even before
the next election.

Paul1405,

The Greens will have to work far harder than that to convince the public that they are not being disingenuous in their opposition to the GST to spruik for the transient disaffected vote who would otherwise likely vote Labor or informal.

There would be some here who would remember that it was the Greens in Tasmania who were trying to wrench supporters from the Democrats who came up with the idea of opposing the GST full-stop, whereas the Democrats generally agreed with some exceptions.

Cynical, self-serving politics from the Greens that continue to today, where the treacherous Greens parasitise Labor for the unemployed ethnic vote, the transient way-out-there left and impressionable young.

The Greens are still in that protest party mode where they pull Senate seats by turning the screws of jealousy, fear and greed on the disaffected and uninformed vulnerable in society. Nasty stuff really.

However there is no likelihood whatsoever that the ABC might ever put the Greens 'policies' under the microscope as they do the other parties and not just the majors either. HMMM, it must be 'their' ABC, as far as that silent informal editorial policy is concerned.

Paul, the GST is a ridiculous and unfair tax as it taxes mums and dads who have already paid their income taxes and allows for all forms of business to claim back the tax (GST) they pay. How stupid is that I ask.

Why on earth these people won't introduce a transaction tax is beyond me because one, the general punter gets more bang for their buck, stimulating the economy along the way and two, all business, big, small, even off shore scammers can't avaoid the tax.

To me it's a no brainer and my only feasible explanation as to why we won't go there is that big business has to much control over government.

Furthermore, tweaking the already low productive GST will simply mean more tweaking will be required once the hand out brigade out spends the increased revenue as is what's happened now.

We must start to tax money not effort as this truly is the only way I can see us plugging the hole.