January 2016
“Let’s talk about tax baby, – let’s talk about you and me, – let’s talk about tax baby, – let’s talk about it’.
With apologies to Salt-N-Pepa and their big hit perhaps it’s time Labor got a bit more creative and – if it helps – into leather to try and woo back the populace. Let’s face it PM Malcolm Turnbull has got voters eating out of his hand and while they continue looking doe eyed at the political equivalent of Casanova he’s preparing to slip them a massive impost in the form of a 50% hike in the GST right down to their underwear.
He’s even getting away with the line that ‘low income earners will be compensated for any extra costs associated with a rise in the GST’. That one is older than the one that goes ‘of course I’ll still respect you in the morning’. If people have to be compensated for it, what’s the point in imposing it? And how does it sit with Treasurer Scott Morrison’s assertion that Australia doesn’t have a revenue problem it has a spending problem?
One thing sexy Mal has done is show that if you treat people like adults and engage them in dialogue they will respond to a mature debate with a cogent argument well put. They are prepared to entertain the idea of personal sacrifice through the taxation system for the greater good. Mal’s silk tie and elegant syntax has them responding even though they know they shouldn’t.
Albeit they have a slight suspicion that Mal might just want to have his wicked way with them, they’re prepared to take a chance because it might not be all that bad and there doesn’t seem to be any other dance partner worth cosying up to.
So how does Labor, the suitor with all the right intentions but seemingly none of the charm and sophistication, get under the balcony to serenade their way back into the affections of the electorate? Perhaps it’s time to say what they think – or should think – and be judged on their merits. That a society with a sophisticated but just tax system is far better than a society that imposes a simple but unfair great big tax on everything like the GST.
That it’s time to look at a land tax which raises revenue from those most able to contribute, older householders like me and super wealthy people like Turnbull. While I would pay tax on the value of the land that my house sits on and Turnbull would do the same, I reckon that Malcolm would pay a fair bit more than me because he can afford to. Likewise Google and other multinationals who apparently run massive enterprises that defy gravity, could not escape a tax on the buildings they occupy while they run their strangely successful loss making enterprises.
Further if we’re really serious about tackling obesity, heart disease and drunken violence then don’t we also need a fat tax, a sugar tax and to finally tax alcohol by volume? If Labor wants to break the current perception of the inevitability of defeat in the upcoming election they need to bring their sexy back. Treating the electorate with respect by engaging them like adults capable of handling sophisticated arguments would be one way to start.