"The old rule of thumb I have is any tax reform at any moment is three banner headlines from defeat."
~Chris RichardsonThere has been some recent commentary noting that 1 July 2020 will be the 20th anniversary of the introduction of the GST. It is also the 90th anniversary of the introduction of the Wholesale Sales Tax which the GST relaced, the 45th anniversary of the Asprey Review report which advocated a broad-based consumption tax, the 35th anniversary of the Hawke Cabinet endorsing Keating’s Option C, with Keating famously rolled on the position in the following month, the 25th anniversary of the then Leader of the Opposition, John Howard, promising that they would never introduce a GST. And whilst on anniversaries, there was a Fightback birthday cake that had an impact as well.
One of the curses of too much education is that you cannot just experience life as it is, but constantly see what is going on around you as concrete illustrations of abstract principles.