Former West Australian Treasurer and current Federal Liberal candidate, Christian Porter, has called for an increase to the GST and a change in its distribution.
Mr Porter today told the West Australian newspaper that an increase in the GST would have to be put on the table:
"Whether that is economically desirable is something you have to really interrogate to a higher degree, but you can imagine that's an issue that's going to be live in Australian politics in the next decade," he said.
"But it's completely pointless talking about that issue unless you sort out the distribution of GST — first or contemporaneously — because no one is going agree to changes in the GST while no one can agree about distribution."
[4 JUNE 2013]
Mr Porter joins a growing list of Liberals who are champing at the bit to increase the rate of the GST, broaden its base and change its distribution.
Any change to the GST would hit families and pensioners hard, increase compliance burdens for small business and rip away funding for schools and hospitals from the smaller states.
Mr Porter has again confirmed what everyone suspects: Tony Abbott's tax white paper would be nothing more than a review of the GST.
Tony Abbott was part of a Liberal Government that introduced the GST and now they want a chance to jack it up.
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.
Mr Abbott and his Liberal mates, however, are waiting for the opportunity to jack up the GST and slug Australians in the hip pocket.