PRIE N] INISTER' S Q{ ANNiJ -7 BRADCAST BRISaANE, 4 CC FOBER 1975
Last week I told you how the Federal and
Liberal leaders had boycotted the Australian Constitutional
Convention in M* elbourne, and on the opening day had held
a press conference on the other side of the road to
release a policy on federalism. Over the last week,
people have come to realise that this policy on federalism
is really a policy on taxation; it is a proposal to
abandon the system of uniform taxation and to introduce
a system of double taxation, of unequal taxes throughout
Australia. It's a proposal to abandon the system of
uniform taxation which was supported by all other
Prime Ministers,. Labor, Chifley, Liberal, Menzies, Holt,
Gorton and McMahon, never criticised by the Liberals
when they were in office, and to go back to the old
pre-war system where there was the Federal income tax
and on top of that a different State income tax in every
State. Now this would be the end of indexation. How
could you index seven different taxes? It would be the
end of the great tax reform which my Government has
introduced in this year's Budget; this great reform which
means that every taxpayer gets a smaller tax bill and
where everybody gets rebates of equal value in the dollar,
whatever his income. The comparison is made with Canada,
and Canada shows what would happen in Australia if we
went back to this double system of taxation. In Canada,
the provinces with the biggest population and the richest
resources pay the smallest provincial income tax;-
on the other hand, the provinces with the smallest
population and witLh the poorest resources, they pay the
highest provincial income tax, and that's what used to
hanpen in Australia; it's what would happen again.
Now ' no wonder that the Liberals are very
up-enthusiastic about it this week. The Premier of
New South Wales, Mr Lewis, has said that no one really
knows what the scheme is all about. The Liberal leader
in Queensland, the Treasurer, Sir Gordon Chalk, has
expressed his reservations about it. A Liberal M. P.
from Queensland, Mr Kevin Cairns, is quite rightly
worried that the scheme would dissadvantage the smaller
States. To quote him: " All Australians with a sense
of equity would ask: Who pays and who gets the benefits?"
Mr Gorton, the for-mer Liberal Prime Minister, points out
that every taxpayer would receive a demand varying in each
State the tax over and above what they would pay in
Federal taxation. And Senator Steele Hall, the last
Liberal Premier off South Australia, has denounced the scheme.
Now not only is this Liberal policy on federalism
a proposal to have double taxation and unequal income
taxation in Australia, it also involves fragmenting the
initiatives my Gcverninent has taken to help local government.
The amount of local government revenues coming from the
Federal Government nas risen during my Government's term
of, office from half of one percent to over six percent.
And these grants are made on the recoimmendations of a
Grants Comassion, an expert body under a Supreme Court IV,
Judge. The Liberals would break up the whole of this scheiie.
They would continue a Federal rants cominission; on top
of that they'd have six separate State grants commissions.
This would be bureaucracy run mad. Now after further
consideration of only one week, Libe-ral confusion on
the subject, I've no doubt that the Australian people
will not tolerate a Liberal policy on federalism which
is really, in blunt terms, a policy to introduce double
taxation in Australia; to have varying State taxes.-
only Canberra would have the one tax, they're the only
people who'd benefit from it and to abandon Federal
assistance for local government. The public will not
tolerate double taxation, unequal taxes, neglected
local government.