The tax white paper was badly in need of a reset. Like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Treasury was continuing to draft the paper after its arms and legs had been chopped off.

Originally told that nothing was off limits, the Treasury was then told (through the prime minister via the media) that superannuation was off limits, that negative gearing was off limits, and that capital gains tax was off limits.

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Yes Gus, it doesn't matter how much sheep's clothing that our neo-liberal pollies might put-on, they'll still be wolves ....

The following comment from John Passant ....

New Treasurer Scott (who to knife next?) Morrison is arguing that Australia has a spending problem. This is the prelude to further savage cuts to government spending on workers and the poor. The man who successfully demonised and attacked asylum seekers will now use his ‘skills’ on working Australians.

Australia does not have a spending problem. Commonwealth Government spending is 26% of GDP.  This is within normal variations on budget expenditure. It is well below the OECD average. In other words Australia is a low spending country. It is also a low taxing country, again well below the OECD average.

What Australia does have is a revenue problem. Revenue collections have dropped in the last few years to 23.5% of GDP.

Here is how The Guardian captured Ken Henry on this falling tax dynamic:

Henry said in 2002, when the budget was in balance, spending and revenue were both 25% of gross domestic product.

Today spending is 26% of gross domestic product and revenue is 23.5% of gross domestic product. A bit more than half of it is explained by a deterioration in revenue performance; by the tax system not delivering in the way that the tax system has delivered in the past, Henry said.

The situation we’re in now is that we’re going to need a much bigger tax reform package … and this tax reform package is going to have to be revenue positive, not revenue negative. It’s going to have to boost the budget surplus. We’ve never done this before.

So if the government did want to fix the revenue problem it could tax the rich. Instead its talk is about rewarding the hard workers which is code for tax cuts for the rich and capital, those people who live off our labour.

If the government wanted to cut spending then ending subsidies to business, abolishing business tax exemptions, stopping tax lurks for the rich and slashing defence spending ($24 billion on a fighter jet that doesn’t even work, seriously?), coupled with a taxing program that actually taxed the rich, could wipe out the $35 billion dollar deficit overnight or go to spending on public schools, public health, public transport and renewable energy.

Tax the rich and slash defence spending? The Liberals – ha ha ha. Labor – ha ha ha.

Australia does not have a spending problem

Scott Morrison's economic recipe for Australians sounds suspiciously like a rebadged version of the Calvinist or Protestant work ethic ("Morrison's mantra: work, save, invest", September 24).

Both the Treasurer's mantra and the Protestant work ethic call for thrift, discipline and hard work and regard these virtues as signs that individuals are predestined for salvation, whether economic or spiritual. Margaret Thatcher had similar ideas and famously said that there is no such thing as society, while Gordon Gekko took it a step further and said that greed is good and greed works.

Many in our society are just not able to manage their lives efficiently, and for some people, working, saving and investing will always be beyond reach. While Morrison has so far avoided Joe Hockey's categories of leaners and lifters, he believes that the Australian system continues to encourage an entitlement mentality. His concern does not extend to the entitlements to $50 billion in superannuation concessions, mainly favouring the wealthy, and negative gearing. 

Unlike many observers, the Treasurer believes that Australia has a spending problem but not a revenue problem. This approach will favour those who "work, save and invest", and widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

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James Moore  Kingsgrove  

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Confronted with growing job queues, increasing poverty, record deficits and burgeoning debt, Morrison and Turnbull are looking more and more like rabbits caught in the headlights. Alan Austin reports.

UNIMAGINABLE SIX months ago, it appears Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison are handling Australia’s once robust economy more disastrously than their hapless predecessors.

Findings published yesterday show Australia is coming a dismal last in recovery from the global financial crisis (GFC) within the Organisationfor Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

This coincides with the release yesterday of a list of Morrison’s multiple humiliating back-downs on taxation in just six months and yet another back-flip — on the backpacker’s tax.

Taken together, these paint a disastrous picture of current economic management at a time of global resurgence. This sharpens interest in the forthcoming May federal budget.

 

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/scott-morrison-worse-treasurer-than-joe-hockey-say-it-isnt-so,8787

Data showing Australia’s economy declining piles up every week as the various agencies release their regular bulletins. Whether by laziness, overwork or desire to protect the pro-big business Turnbull Government, little gets reported in the mainstream press. Independent Australia will now do the gleaning so you don’t have to.

Jolt to the jobless

Australia may finally be joining the global surge in job creation with the latest unemployment rate falling to 5.3%, the lowest since November 2012.

But maybe not. Back then, 5.3% ranked equal sixth lowest out of the 35 wealthy member countries of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD). In November 2012, Germany and Australia both had 5.3% of their workforce unemployed. Only South Korea, Switzerland, Norway, Japan and Mexico had lower jobless rates.

Today, four years into the strongest global boom in trade, jobs and profits in decades, 5.3% ranks18th. That is in the bottom half of the table. Thirteen countries now have their jobless rate below 4.0%.

If Australia still ranked sixth in the OECD, its rate would be 3.5% and another 243,000 Australians would be off welfare and earning a salary.

Workers needing more work

Part-time employees wanting to work more hours remain close to the all-time high.

The ABS has released its annual Participation potential: Part-time workers who would prefer more hours. This counts all part-timers – some working as little as an hour a week – who need more work.

The long-term average since 1985 is 22.9% of all jobless. The highest was in 2015 at 30.1%. Second highest was last year at 29.8%. This year’s is third highest ever at 29.5%.

 

Read more about the incoming gloom:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/a-new-directi...

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http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35328#comment-42173