Why we should stop worrying and learn to love the GST, writes Jess_Irvine
But the hard fact is that if people want their government to provide them with stuff, that stuff must be paid for. Sure, we can go into debt for a time. But there are limits to that in the long run.
The goal for government is to get in and get out with the cash it needs while discouraging as few potentially welfare-enhancing transactions as possible. When state governments don't get sufficient revenue from the GST, they turn to raising taxes in far more damaging ways such as stamp duty. Of course, they could just not do that. But under the current system, if states chose individually to shift to more efficient sources of revenue, like a broad-based land tax, they face being penalised under the current system for distributing GST revenues.
Here, the Thodey review squibs it, saying simply that state premiers should knock heads together to figure out the best way forward.
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