Have you ever been in a meeting where the discussion ends up widely off-topic and you wonder how it got here?
Our job is to ensure the national tax debate doesn’t end up in the same place.
If the tax debate becomes a story of who is up and who is down, who are the instant winners and losers and what goodies can we all get from it, then we won’t make progress as a country.
The most pressing issue we face is how do we generate growth and make Australia more prosperous?
Prosperity is the foundation by which we can tackle every challenge we face – from funding infrastructure in growth areas to getting federal and state finances under control.
The sure-fire way to lift our economic trajectory is to tackle the inefficiencies in our tax system. That means you start by getting rid of the most inefficient taxes first.
Already, Australians pay over $72 billion a year in property taxes.
We know that reforming property taxes could increase Australia’s GDP by $3.3 billion and real consumption by $9.7 billion – and create 6,700 new jobs.
We’ve witnessed the runaway growth of stamp duty over the past decade – and it has now reached the point where it is restraining growth, holding back jobs, discouraging labour market mobility and making our cities less efficient.
The Property Council is determined to get this debate back to economic fundamentals. If it doesn’t, then the Treasurer and the Premiers will just be tinkering around the edges.