Comments on: Crikey says: circuit-breaking in GST debate

By: Gavin Moodie

Gavin Moodie — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 21:22:08 +0000

I second zut’s motion for negative gearing homicide.

By: Jim Moore

Jim Moore — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:03:42 +0000

I’m giving up reading the editorial as it seems to now be written by a member of the Young Libs.

By: klewso

klewso — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:35:30 +0000

“Make (fresh) food dearer”?
There’s a limit to the number of “luxury goods” we can consume, but we all need to eat, even the poorest of us.

Revisit those “Fend for Yourself Peasants! Tax Cuts” (with their affect on subsidised/affordable necessary infrastructure funding - education/health/care/dental) Howard used to buy votes.

By: Carbonbasedlife

Carbonbasedlife — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 10:07:53 +0000

Crikey, you guys are crazy … come out from behind your little notebook computers and blind internet research and venture into the real world. If it was 1 April I could overlook the stupidity of today’s editorial. But sadly it’s not 1 April. We, the working class, already pay a substantial portion of each dollar we earn in tax. And we already hand over 10% on almost everything other than fresh food … we spend. We will not accept an increase in the 10%. And did anyone stop to think that maybe if the percentage of spending allocated to fresh food has increased, that might be because it’s a damned necessity. On the scale of needs … need air to breath, water to drink, and then .. food. Get into the real world. Or become irrelevant.

By: Gavin Moodie

Gavin Moodie — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:52:15 +0000

I support jmendelssohn’s proposals to join the rest of the OECD in restoring probate duty and to remove the favourable tax treatment of trusts. However, I don’t know the cost of these tax expenditures.

By: AR

AR — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:21:46 +0000

“spending more on food compared to other goods and services and that is a problem… WHY?
I was furious at this piece of nonsense and was glad to see that I wasn’t the only one with more than two functioning neurons.
The Democrats were destroyed because of Lee’s acquiescence to the indefensible.
A GST/VAT/MOMS is applicable in Europe because of their historical failure (esp the Latins - italy, France, Spain et al) to have an enforceable INCOME TAX so, rather that fart arse about they simply said “if ya got it, ya tend to spend it so we’ll tax it” - simple.
The idiocy of our GST was that it not only did it not obviate income tax but did not include a super tier, for highly enriched product and(mostly)services.
Increase the GST by all means on such upper echelon items but leave basic food alone. Tax the bejasus out of fast/junk food, to extinction if possible.

By: jmendelssohn

jmendelssohn — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:01:37 +0000

Keep fresh food tax free. Healthy food needs to be encouraged.

As well as Gavin Moodie’s sensible suggestions, what about a death duty for the seriously rich? Say for estates over $10 million. And do something about trust accounts which provide a tax avoidance hole you can drive a truck through. They should have been dealt with years ago.

By: ulysses butterfly

ulysses butterfly — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 07:19:04 +0000

wrong

By: Philip Hunt

Philip Hunt — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 07:11:21 +0000

Like some of the other commenters, this is a disturbing opinion and atypical (in our experience) of Crikey’s concern for equity and social concerns. Let’s have a debate on GST for sure, but let’s not provoke it with this kind of bugger-the-poor economics.

By: zut alors

zut alors — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:50:53 +0000

Strongly agree with all comments by the first six posters.

Quadruple the airport departure tax - travellers flying internationally must be comfortably cashed-up to afford the airfares.

And isn’t it time to kill off negative gearing?

By: Bill Hilliger

Bill Hilliger — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:08:35 +0000

Tax increase on alcohol, tobacco and junk food is the way to go. Fresh food must remain GST tax free, leave GST as is.

By: michael crook

michael crook — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 04:44:37 +0000

jesus christ crikey, are you stark staring bonkers. Or is it a joke. we are spending a fortune on health care as a result of failure to rein in junk food (the new tobacco) and you want to increase taxes on fresh food. how about a wealth tax for f.cks sake, aren’t we sick of the wealthy creaming off the excess and paying no bloody tax.

By: oliver moran

oliver moran — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 03:46:30 +0000

You have got to be daft to think that increasing the cost of food by 10 % is worthy of considering. The cost of fresh food to the low income earners /their own health/ etc.
any politician especially Labor won’t go near it.
Nuts!
Tax the high income earners more on their increasing expenditure on fuel burning 4 wheel drives and top end machines Get em back to low fuel consumption vehicles with incentives

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 03:25:47 +0000

Gavin,

Absolutely, we need more progressive not regressive taxation in an era where inequality is on the rise.

By: Gavin Moodie

Gavin Moodie — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 02:51:06 +0000

Crikey, big business and the other gst champions can have your $6 billion from extending the gst once you have removed housing’s exemption from the capital gains ($36 billion), removed the regressive tax treatment of superannuation ($29 billion) and removed the capital gains tax discount ($4.7 billion).

By: Davies Alexander

Davies Alexander — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 02:47:58 +0000

Surely including fresh food would be a dispropotionate burden to the poor?