GST: Premier Andrews says any increases must benefit health system

Date
    November 20, 2015
    The Age

Premier Daniel Andrews opposes any GST increase.    



More funding for Australia's health system should be the top priority of any GST increase, Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews has urged.

The Andrews government opposes any GST increase but has said it would respect the mandate of any federal government that won an election with a platform of an increase.

Mr Andrews, like his federal Labor counterparts, opposes a GST increase because it is an "unfair" tax. 

Earlier this month it was revealed that Treasury had offered several models to raise the GST, including lifting the rate to 15 per cent.   

Addressing the Committee for Economic Development Australia in Melbourne on Friday, Mr Andrews said if there was an increase it should go towards health because a drop in funding for the sector was a catalyst for the tax debate.

Treasurer Scott Morrison said any change to the GST would only be considered if put forward by the states and territories.

"Such a proposal would also have to reduce taxes, such as personal income tax, and increase income support payments to ensure vulnerable Australians were not adversely impacted, as occurred when the GST was introduced," Mr Morrison said.

Mr Andrews said one option being discussed around a GST change was to put half the new money raised into compensation for low income earners.

Under the plan, he said, the other half of the additional revenue would be spent on personal income and company tax cuts, with the remaining money to be spent on the health system.

"To potentially have an outcome where just the crumbs, or just the scraps of that process, gets allocated to the thing that brought it about, a crisis in the sustainability of our hospital funding, that I don't think is reform," Mr Andrews said.

"Our doctors and nurses need more money to treat more patients."

Tax reform, he said, was not simply about changing the rate of a tax.

This week's Fairfax/Ipsos poll found that if adequate compensation was paid to the poor and other taxes trimmed more than half of all Australians would back a GST increase.

Mr Andrews attacked the Turnbull government for lacking clarity on the budget and tax reform.

He also called on the Commonwealth to recognise that the major productivity levers in Australia were actually controlled by state governments, not Canberra.

"Until we get a federal government that is not so much interested in intruding and imposing, but instead partnering with states to realise the productivity potential… then I think we will always fall short."

He called for better partnerships with the federal government on infrastructure and education.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said under the Liberals' plan for a 15 per cent GST, every single Australian would have to pay more.   

"That's why Labor will not support Mr Turnbull's plan to raise the GST because it will push up the price of everything and hurt the very families who can least afford it," Mr Shorten said. 

It is a federal law, nothing to do with the Premiers in fact.

Jovial Monk wrote on Nov 21^st, 2015 at 6:54am:



Although it was sloppy Joes intent to push the states in to making the decision for federal after cutting some 80billion, because wait for it, it might have made Fed Libs less popular than they already were , that sure worked out well for Sloppy and Dumb dumb.

cods wrote on Nov 21^st, 2015 at 7:09am:

Yes, I seriously believe that.

Howard brought in the GST. In the Act he put in a clause that the GST could only be increased if all the states asked for it. But that clause can be removed by the Fed govt whenever it likes assuming the Senate agrees. The Greens will agree.

Andrews has already said that if the federal government takes a GST to an election and wins.. he wont oppose it

President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on Nov 21^st, 2015 at 7:53am:

No, I pay them    (Warning, obscure Goon Show reference)

But what I stated is the facts.

Commonwealth law governs the GST, the commonwealth can change the GST act. This is a fact of law.

Of course, the Senate has to be convinced to vote to remove the clause about States having to ask for changes to the GST but the Greens will oblige. Then the politics has to be right but a failing and panicking Morriscum might decide to do it.

President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on Nov 21^st, 2015 at 7:55am:


That is interesting... A labor person willing to accept a electoral mandate...  Pity Federal labor didnt do that with the Carbon Tax repeal or Mining Tax repeal.

stunspore wrote on Nov 21^st, 2015 at 8:21am:


Those that do that are ALL multi-nationals and it is a global problem that is difficult to fix. AS long as there are low-tax regimes, multi-nationals will obviously want to funnel profits through there.