The claim made by Mr Laurie Oakes on the Sunday programme, and immediately
parroted by the Federal Opposition, that my April 12 Prime Network
address contained a deliberately misleading assertion on income tax
is false.
In the Prime address I said: "According to a recent study by
the OECD, Australian workers on average wages pay more in income tax
than workers in any other industrialised country in the world, except
Denmark ".
This statement is based on Table 2 on page 14 of the OECD report,
"The Tax/Benefit Position of Employees, 1997," which
is attached.
In relation to income tax as a percentage of labour costs, the table
clearly shows Australia second behind Denmark.
That report's findings formed the basis of an editorial in "The
Australian" on April 6 1999.
That editorial made the overall point that "Only Denmark ranks
higher in a survey of the level of income tax paid on an average wage
as a proportion of gross wages in the 28 nations making up the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development."
The OECD report also contained a table (Table 1) which provided information
on the income tax burden measured on a less comprehensive basis. This
appears to have been the table used by Mr Oakes in a bid to discredit
my statement. It is a pity that in the interests of balance, Mr Oakes
did not also flourish Table 2.
Table 1, which is also attached, nevertheless highlights the high
income tax burden imposed on Australian workers.
I specifically reject the assertion by Mr Oakes and the Deputy Leader
of the Opposition, Mr Crean, that I deliberately set out to mislead
the Australian public.
18 April 1999.