A senior member of Tony Abbott's team has flagged the inclusion of the GST in the Coalition's proposed tax review.
West Australian Liberal MP, Michael Keenan, let the cat out of the bag this morning:
HOST:
It has been a busy budget week. Tony Abbott has flagged a tax white paper. For the GST not to be included in that, it would be quite odd wouldn't it?
KEENAN:
Look, it would be odd
[SKY NEWS – 18 MAY 2013]
This comes off the back of Mr Abbott and his Deputy, Julie Bishop, yesterday both refusing to rule out considering the GST as part of their proposed tax review.
The Liberals introduced the GST and now the Liberal Premiers are pushing Mr Abbott to increase the tax. If Mr Abbott has no plans to change the rate, base or distribution of the GST, then why does he refuse to rule out considering the GST in his tax review?
A change to the GST would jack up prices for consumers and rip away services from smaller states like Tasmania and South Australia.
The Government opposes any change to the rate or base of the GST and the Government commissioned an independent review of GST distribution which found the current system of Horizontal Fiscal Equalisation works well.