Subject: The new tax system
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………
PRIME MINISTER:
Good evening.
When Australia’s new tax system begins next Saturday we’ll put behind us once and for all the old tax system that has held Australia back. Yet instead of helping us to make the new tax system work, the Labor Party has consistently knocked and criticised and stood in the way. Now Mr Beazley says that he will roll back the GST without specifying how and where and without telling us who will pay.
Rolling back the GST can only make the system more complex and confusing at the very time that small business needs to be allowed to get on with the job. Rolling back the GST will encourage every interest group worthy or otherwise to make demands.
The truth is that bowing to every pressure group would have denied us the ability to abolish the old wholesale sales tax. It would have stopped us from delivering the largest income tax cuts in Australia’s history so that four in every five taxpayers will be on a top rate of no more than thirty cents in the dollar or less. It would have stopped us from increasing pensions and family allowances and reducing the cost of transport in the country. It would have encouraged the tax cheats but prevented us from giving the states the necessary revenue to fund the schools and hospitals, roads and police we all need into the future.
We genuinely believe that improving the tax system has been the right thing for Australia. When the new tax system begins next Saturday it will move Australia forward. Labor’s promises can only roll Australia back.
Good night.
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