Paul Keating confused on tax reform

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Former Prime Minister and Treasurer, Paul Keating, has lashed plans to raise the GST to 15%, claiming that such a move would be “fiscal folly” and “tax penury”, while making the tax system less progressive. From The Canberra Times:

[Keating] warned the tax is inherently regressive, provides no incentive for behavioural change, would reward foreign shareholders if it was used to fund a lower company tax rate, and worst of all, would inevitably lead to a 20 cents-in-the-dollar GST rate in line with much of Europe, before long.

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.