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Henry Tax Review Delays
15-March-2010
The Government should immediately release the report to allow taxpayers and businesses to participate in a well-informed discussion about tax reform.
Even a member of the government’s own Henry Tax Review committee, Heather Ridout, the chief executive of the Australian Industry Group--as now called for the immediate release of this report.
Business, in particular, needs certainty to make investments. Without the Henry Review on the table all they can do is delay and that puts jobs on hold.
It was widely expected the Henry Review would be released in March, now we’re told May. This serves the Government, but no-one else.
The government’s reluctance to release the report is purely to delay public scrutiny and will mean less time for Australian taxpayers and businesses to consider the report’s recommendations.
The government’s political games are also delaying discussions on other reforms with the State Premiers having already said that they will need to see the report before they consider health reform.
The PM’s guarantee that no State or Territory will be worse prompts the obvious question: where are Mr Rudd’s priorities? Why is it that he provides a guarantee to his Labor state and territory colleagues, but NO such guarantee for business or pay-as-you-earn taxpayers.
After sitting on the report’s recommendations since December last year, Australians will expect the government to do more than just simplifying tax returns.
The Treasurer is talking up the streamlining of PAYG tax returns as the “centrepiece” of the Government’s response. Welcome as this measure might be, it is hardly the “once in a generation opportunity for reform” that Labor has been spruiking for the last eighteen months.