New taxed needed?

In Henry lives! Big new taxes coming ... some day Michael Pascoe highlights the crunch coming as governments are facing a tax shortfall and tax reform is needed:

The Henry Review of Taxation is alive and kicking, the flame kept burning in places as diverse as the federal Treasury, the Moody's ratings agency and anywhere that the nation's future is seriously considered.

And the great irony is that inevitable “big new taxes” will need to be introduced by the coalition parties. Wonder how that will play at the Billy Tea Party end of the spectrum ...

There's also irony in that this week's effective ditching of the business lobby's immediate corporate tax cut hopes is an another step towards achieving them. The demonstrated inability to massage a revenue-neutral tax cut underlines the need for greater changes.

The latest instalment of the Henry revival came in yesterday's speech by Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson. There was nothing particularly new in it, but retelling the story of our fiscal reality is a necessary part of inching unwilling politicians towards taking up the responsibilities of their office. (That the job has to be primarily left to a public servant rather than our elected representatives says plenty about the current crop.)

For the states things might well be worse.