The Great Tax Debate
The Great Tax Debate held on Wednesday 31 August, 2011 was a resounding success, in terms of the breadth and depth of ideas discussed as well as interest from attendees - in person as well as via web stream.
Where to from here
The Tax Institute will now consider the range of views expressed at this event going into the Government's Tax Forum in October with a view to driving a reform agenda and we are eager for your input. If you have ideas you'd like to contribute, please don't hesitate to post them on our blog or to email us directly at TaxPolicy. You can also follow the comments on twitter via @TaxInstituteOz, #greattaxdebate, #taxforum.
Resources
For those looking for the materials from the day, we have on our website the videos of each presentation from the day, along with supporting slides and papers.
Our speakers included:
- Rob Oakeshott MP, Federal Member for Lyne;
- Senator Mathias Cormann, Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation;
- Greg Smith, former Henry Review panellist and current Adjunct Professor, Economic and Social Policy, Australian Catholic University;
- Henry Ergas, Senior Economic Adviser, Deloitte Access Economics;
- Adam Creighton, Research Fellow, Economics Program, Centre for Independent Studies; and
- Cassandra Goldie, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Council of Social Service.
They discussed a variety of topics, both in their own presentations and with our Senior Tax Counsel, Robert Jeremenko on the Q&A Panel, including:
- Reforming state taxes
- The Federal/State Government fiscal imbalance
- The appropriateness of the rate of GST
- Flattening the scale of personal income tax rates
- The distortionary effect of the tax system on investment
- The effect of tax reform on lower income earners
The day was seamlessly managed by our facilitator, Ali Moore from ABC's Lateline and allowed for a range of views on this important subject to be canvassed ahead of the Government's Tax Forum in October.
As always, we welcome your support in relation to our advocacy efforts including through your interest in this event and look forward to staying in touch and continuing the debate.
