Federal Independent MP Rob Oakeshott says both sides of politics have privately indicated to him they are willing to examine the GST as part of a broader review of the tax system, but not before the next election.

Such a move by Labor or the Coalition to review the goods and services tax stands in contrast to their public commitments not to tinker with it, including the 10 per cent rate or broadening its base.

Mr Oakeshott says he has been contacted by “senior representatives” from both sides of politics who have expressed a willingness to reconsider the GST, although he has not said who.

“Most people in politics understand that Australia… has to have a look at its tax mix,” Mr Oakeshott told ABC News.

“We have to remove a number of inefficient state taxes… taxes like insurance, taxes like stamp duty.

“And to do that, we need to work some of those more efficient – like the GST – harder.”

But Mr Oakeshott has expressed frustration that neither side is willing to have the debate before the next election, saying it is a poor reflection on the current state of politics in Australia.

“Why should an election get in the way of this conversation that has to happen, is going to happen, and there seems to be this risk averse nature of the political parties prior to the election,” Mr Oakeshott told ABC Radio National.

“Let’s have the discussion openly. Let’s look at and welcome the opportunity to get rid of some of those inefficient state taxes.”

A 2010 review of the tax system put forward a number of recommendations, but was prevented from suggesting any increase to the rate of the GST or its coverage because of the Government’s policy not to make any change to the 10 per cent charge.

Despite its limiting terms of reference, the report noted the GST was not as efficient as it could be because it did not tax consumption on a truly comprehensive basis.

In July, the report’s author, Ken Henry, suggested there should be a public debate about how the GST worked because there would need to be greater reliance on consumption-based taxes in the future.

But Finance Minister Penny Wong has this morning again rejected the idea of making changes to the GST.

“We said during the last term of Government and we said clearly during this term of Government as well, the Labor party’s not going to be increasing nor extending the base of the GST,” Senator Wong told ABC local radio.

Yesterday afternoon shadow treasurer Joe Hockey again said he did not support increasing the GST or broadening its base, and that any change would require the support of all state leaders.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-20/both-parties-back-gst-review-says-oakeshott/4381376

julia gillard has ruled out increasing GST so its a given that it will increase, you can look forward to paying 20 – 25 percent tax on everything.

they added carbon tax

now look forward to son of carbon tax

howard said of gst “never , ever”

welcome to wookieworld

the only way of increasing the unemployment rate is by raising taxes

there aren’t enough people out of work

there would be at least one person who has lost his job on this forum because of tax hikes.

STAT

that for wookie.. or/and Oakeshott?

he brought in carbon tax

he will bring in higher GST

i have been telling people for quite some time they mean to crush the existing working population back to the stone age and maintain the status quo. most parliament are there to do immense damage to the country knowingly or unknowingly.

higher taxes makes an economy highly unstable unless you’e got some all encompassing social security system.

higher taxes drives down demand

destroys new businesses and small businesses, larger businessesare more likely to survive and prosper with the collapse of smaller competitors being whacked by the government.

the government then spends vast amounts of money on essentially consummables or low value items which in the end bring no material or immaterial benefit.

getting back to potplants, if they raise the GST they can afford another million dollars for potplants in the dept of education. they don’t care where the money is coming from or what it is being destroyed to get that money.

labour is traditionally a force of destruction in the power, it introduces higher taxes ruins the economy gets involved in things that it has no real reason to be involved with that costs us millions of dollars (eg “the security council seat” – we have no real armed forces so a security seat means that australia is essentially a paperweight at the desk of someone like the united states at that security meeting – how many lives has it cost to collect that revenue to get that seat) labor is more of the dionysius form of management, wild and destructive. the liberals are more white collar crime, reducing taxes for favoured friends and rubber stamping the mafia into the country on the back of a 100,000 “donation” to the liberal party when amanda vandstone was in power – the liberal hate the working class and seek to destroy it to make it cheaper to employ them.

both political parties target the working class to make sure it can never become too educated or powerful. by making their lives miserable they take to drink, drugs and crime (which means you can lock them up in private prisons built and run by your friends)

to those “over extended” the nerxt few years will cut them down and make their lives a misery. britain introduced the GST and the country has been going back ever since, spain has decided that it would increase the GST to 25% thus making sure that no economic recovery will ever happen!!

ecomomics is a self evident subject, few students ever make any connection with reality – given so few people ever saw the crash of 2008 that is STILL with us.

keep taking more loans, become over extended, keep raising taxes, keep buying non value items at a governmental level and keep doing things that have little or no cost benefit, keep destroying your manufacturing and agricultural sector and disaster is sure to follow.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-06/uws-set-to-ditch-economics/4355272

They call it the dismal science, but it is the future of economics that looks dismal in Australia right now.

Sydney University’s Business School jettisoned its economics discipline into the Faculty of Arts two years ago.

That is after it earlier ejected the less orthodox Political Economy discipline into Arts, along with Government and International Relations.

Now the University of Western Sydney is looking to get rid of economics altogether.

The University has presented staff in its School of Business with a formal change proposal that would see an end to the bachelor of economics and several other programs.

In its formal change proposal, UWS says it will cut 29 full-time positions, around 10 of which will come from the discipline of economics and finance becoming simply finance.

One of those potentially in the firing line is arguably UWS’s most publicly prominent academic, economics professor Steve Keen.

“I’ve had hedge funds funding me, I’ve had the Institute for New Economic Thinking (supported by billionaire George Soros) funding me, I’ve got an international profile and I find it ridiculous that the university is simply deciding, oh well, let’s let all that go,” he said over his mobile phone from a roadside in Mexico.

“And of course a major source of decent publicity for Western Sydney has been my activities in the last five years.”

Audio: The dismal science faces a dismal future at UWS (PM)
However, aside from the loss of publicity the university might suffer, Professor Keen says it will be sacrificing intellectual rigour in an area where it has been leading to this point.

“ doubly or triply ironic because, not only is it an economic crisis that’s dominating the world’s decision making today, but people realise there’s a need for an alternative perspective on economic theory and economics at the University of Western Sydney has prided itself on giving a broad pluralist education to students, teaching them both the mainstream and non-mainstream views for the last 15 years,” he added.

“Of course, I work there, and I’m one of the few economists acknowledged as having seen this crisis coming, so it’s bizarre that the university can ignore all that and simply propose to cut the department completely, simply as a way of coping with costs.”

Large universities like the University of Sydney and New South Wales have dramatically lowered their ATAR (Australian tertiary admission rank) cut-off entry points.
Associate Professor Brian Pinkstone
UWS has told staff the change is needed because business school enrolments have fallen markedly over the past two years, and look set to fall sharply again in 2013.

Associate Professor Brian Pinkstone also teaches economics at UWS, and he places much of the blame for falling student numbers on a change to Federal Government policy that encouraged greater competition for students between universities, and resulted in lower entry requirements.

“Large universities like the University of Sydney and New South Wales have dramatically lowered their ATAR (Australian tertiary admission rank) cut-off entry points,” he observed.

“And that, this year particularly, has had a big effect in dragging students away from making UWS as a first preference.”

Career concerns
Professor Pinkstone is concerned that the loss of economics from UWS may reduce career options for young people from Western Sydney.

“We take in students with relatively low ATARs and they end up with the best outcomes in the university in terms of employment prospects,” he added.

“Our best students are going to our honours program where every year, one, two or three might get into the Reserve Bank or Federal Treasury, State Treasury, etcetera.

“They move into the highest echelons of government economic policy advice, and in competition with Sydney University and the other sandstone universities.”

One of those prospective honours students is Alison Lim. She learnt about the university’s proposal second-hand.

“When I first heard about it I was quite in shock and I didn’t quite believe it, and I had to call up the honours coordinator for confirmation,” she said.

Ms Lim says she has been working towards doing an honours year since first year, and was concerned all the preparation would be wasted, after the university’s original proposal included a plan to scrap economics honours from next year on.

UWS now looks likely to keep economics honours for next year. But beyond that, there will not be much economics left according to Professor Pinkstone.

“We’d end up with a situation where there was only one economic subject, which would be introductory economic principles,” he said.

Economics ‘invaluable’ to business
Many in the business community are worried about the long-term impact of cutting back economics in business degrees.

Andrea Staines is a non-executive director of ASX 200-listed company QR National, and several other smaller firms.

Business degrees are becoming just very focused on the here and now … and what is missing is the longer-term skill set, the broader skill set.
Andrea Staines, QR National non-executive director
She did a bachelor of economics as her undergraduate degree and says it has been “invaluable” in her career as a director and gives business leaders a broader view.

“Business degrees are becoming just very focused on the here and now, and on sort of the first or second jobs that the student would take out of university,” she observed.

“And what is missing is the longer-term skill set, the broader skill set.”

UWS management met with staff on Monday afternoon as part of formal consultation around the proposal.

People at the meeting say both the university’s deputy vice-chancellors were present and fielded questions.

The dean of the business school told the meeting the plan had been under formulation since January.

In response to the ABC’s queries, UWS said in a statement that,” no decisions will be made on courses and staffing until this formal consultation period is completed.”

Economics ‘invaluable’ to business
Many in the business community are worried about the long-term impact of cutting back economics in business degrees.

Andrea Staines is a non-executive director of ASX 200-listed company QR National, and several other smaller firms.

Business degrees are becoming just very focused on the here and now … and what is missing is the longer-term skill set, the broader skill set.
Andrea Staines, QR National non-executive director
She did a bachelor of economics as her undergraduate degree and says it has been “invaluable” in her career as a director and gives business leaders a broader view.

it doesn’t mention that that this person so enamoured with the study of economics is also repsonsible for QR national being in 3 billion worth of debt.

you don;t need to be an expert to understand that billions of debt is not healthy for anyone

It’s a perfect opportunity to incorporate Wookienomics into the syllabus.

Divine Angel said:

It’s a perfect opportunity to incorporate Wookienomics into the syllabus.

wookienomics 101

i could give a lecture on how to get rid of a fly – learn to outsource

for example your company is heavily in debt, by getting someone to buy into the debt you solve all your problems ans those problems are now someone elses problems

channels nine did this recently

wookiemeister said:

i could give a lecture on how to get rid of a fly – learn to outsource

for example your company is heavily in debt, by getting someone to buy into the debt you solve all your problems ans those problems are now someone elses problems

channels nine did this recently

…as did the American financial industry, at the expense of Europe.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

wookiemeister said:

i could give a lecture on how to get rid of a fly – learn to outsource

for example your company is heavily in debt, by getting someone to buy into the debt you solve all your problems ans those problems are now someone elses problems

channels nine did this recently

…as did the American financial industry, at the expense of Europe.

ah right

wasn’t it some investment firm getting people to buy toxic debt in australia just before the big bang? not lehman bros one of the other big names, they found emails talking about this.

(Reuters) – French towns that say they were tricked into taking out risky loans from rescued lender Dexia are refusing to repay them in full and are asking President Francois Hollande for a bailout.

Franco-Belgian municipal bank Dexia was propped up with billion of euros of public money last October, when it become the first banking victim of Europe’s debt crisis after its strategy of using short-term borrowing scheme to finance long-term lending came unstuck.

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Those loans included an estimated 13 billion euros (10.5 billion pounds) of risky structured products that went sour after the 2008 financial crisis, saddling thousands of French towns with crippling interest rates.

Frustrated by what they perceive as government inaction over the mounting repayments, mayors in a handful of the towns are tearing up their contracts rather than pay the state-rescued bank with money raised from tax hikes or spending cuts.

“I was not elected to raise taxes and to have those taxes go directly into banks,” said Xavier-Martin Le Chevalier, mayor of the north-western coastal town of Tregastel. “Directly or indirectly, the state will end up having to pay the bill.”

The payments strike is an unwelcome distraction for Hollande as he battles to bring France’s public deficit back below European Union limits against a backdrop of economic slowdown and rising unemployment.

The French, Belgian and Luxembourg governments initially stumped up 45 billion euros of guarantees to cover Dexia’s debts, a sum that was raised to 55 billion in June. On Saturday, the bank’s chief executive warned it may need recapitalising soon.

Dozens of municipalities have already sued Dexia for allegedly mis-selling them the “toxic” debt products, which were indexed to everything from foreign currencies to U.S. loans.

Le Chevalier said he had opted to continue paying his town’s Dexia loan at the initial fixed interest rate – in his case, 3 percent – rather than the new variable Swiss franc-pegged rate, which at end-July stood at 13 percent.

He is not alone.

“We will repay the principal and the previous interest rate, nothing more,” said Sebastien Pietrasanta, mayor of the Paris suburb of Asnieres which, having recently ploughed millions of euros into an urban facelift, faces a doubling of loan repayments to Dexia out of its 182 million-euro debt pile.

“Otherwise it means no more staff in schools and no more day-care centres.”

SPOOKING THE STATE

In its handling of the rebellious mayors, the state has so far tended to toe the line of least resistance – understandable given the size of its own exposure to Dexia’s government-guaranteed loan book.

Responding to the Asnieres case, junior minister Anne-Marie Escoffier said municipalities “must honour their debt repayments” unless there has been a breach of the rules.

“The amount of money at stake is no doubt spooking the state at a time of pressure on the public purse,” said Christophe Faverjon, mayor of the central town of Unieux. “But are we going to let cities fail?…It is fair that the state should step in.”

Some mayors believe the debtors’ strike has yet to peak, given a recent ruling in the Paris Court of Appeal that upheld the central-eastern city of Saint-Etienne’s refusal to reimburse interest-rate swaps bought from Royal Bank of Scotland pending a final resolution of the case.

But in the case of Unieux, the Lyon Court of Appeal ruled last month the town had broken contract law by unilaterally deciding not to repay in full.

Dexia said it had “acknowledged” the legal ruling against Unieux and the statement by Escoffier. The bank declined to comment further.

As they battle the higher interest rates, many municipalities have started raising taxes.

“Most of us (mayors) have been building up provisions… And this has already started to cost municipalities,” said Maurice Vincent, mayor of Saint-Etienne.

“There has been a slight increase in taxation … between 1 and 4 percentage points, depending on the case.”

(Reporting by Lionel Laurent; Editing by John Stonestreet)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/10/12/uk-france-dexia-mayors-idUKBRE89B0SI20121012

Australians are being warned to avoid “debt regret” as applications for credit cards surge ahead of Christmas.

Credit reporting agency Veda says there has been a 10 per cent increase in credit card applications in the December quarter each year for the past five years.

There has also been a similar rise in the number of defaults.

One bank is so bogged down, it is taking twice the usual time to process applications.

Veda chief executive Belinda Diprose says consumers must be careful not to over-commit.

“We’ve done some research that looks into the last five years of credit trends, and we find that credit card applications peak in November,” she said.

“They’re often 10 per cent higher in those last three months of the year and we see people particularly taking out credit cards and this often leads them to, perhaps, over-committing themselves.”

Ms Diprose says those customers are 8.5 per cent more likely to default in the new year.

She says it indicates that those people are putting themselves into debt stress.

Audio: Listen to the story (PM)
But she says that does not indicate financial institutions are not completing due diligence requirements before selling credit cards.

“No, certainly not. It’s not until later down the track that people find that they’re to struggle,” Ms Diprose said.

“Things start piling up and people get caught up in the Christmas rush in terms of buying presents for their family.

“You’ve got post-Christmas sales and it’s easy to get caught up in that Christmas rush.”

There has been a 6 per cent drop in credit card application inquiries between January and October this year.

Ms Diprose says Veda has found the public’s appetite for credit cards has dried slightly.

“I know myself I’m reaching for my debit card more often than I am my credit card, and that could be an indication of a wider trend,” she said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-10/27debt-regret27-looms-as-credit-card-sales-surge/4419736?section=business

More Victorians are having their power and gas cut off for failing to pay their bills on time.

A report from the Essential Services Commission shows that there has been a 33 per cent increase in electricity disconnections and a 50 per cent increase in gas accounts being disconnected in the past year.

Gerard Brody of the Consumer Action Law Centre says losing power and gas can have serious implications for low income families who are struggling to pay their bills.

“The data shows that almost half the disconnections are being reconnected at the same address, in the same name within 7 days,” he said.

“That’s a telling statistic, that people are having problems with making payments and rather than making it easier for the household, the retailer is simply disconnecting them.”

Mr Brody fears the situation may get worse as energy prices rise.

“We’ve seen year-on-year price increases and the prices are due to get higher on the first of January again,” he said.

“We are concerned that this situation is going to get worse, not better, unless the energy retailers really reform the way in which they treat the most vulnerable consumers in the market place.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-10/big-increase-in-gas2c-electricity-disconnections/4419018?section=business

People are further warned not to get too drunk at Christmas parties and dry-hump the leg of other guests, just in case they have a spiteful ex (in a few months time) that wants to ruin their reputation.

… but do they listen?

party_pants said:

People are further warned not to get too drunk at Christmas parties and dry-hump the leg of other guests, just in case they have a spiteful ex (in a few months time) that wants to ruin their reputation.

… but do they listen?

I wonder if Eric Ripper might consider changing camps?