labor all at sea, page-28

Nuts,

Under Howard, the total tax paid by Australians increased to record levels. If you want to delude yourself by confusing the tax rate with the tax take then go ahead. The reality is that it's the tax take that the government gets to spend and this is what was at record levels. If Howard had been serious about running efficient government, he could have dropped tax rates sufficiently to decrease the total tax take. He did not do this. Instead he reduced tax rates by modest amounts but not enough to decrease the total tax burden.

I paid more tax to Howard year after year. Sure I earned more but that was through serious hard graft by me and by the people who were working with me. That doesn't alter the fact that I was paying more tax year after year.

People who say total taxation decreased under Howard are lying pure and simple. If they want to be truthful then they should stick to the facts. The fact is tax RATES decreased under Howard and so the simple, straightforward, truthful statement is, "Tax rates decreased under Howard.".

The introduction of the GST was a dog's breakfast compromise between the Howard Government and a self serving group of senators who destroyed their own party in the process. I have an abiding loathing for the GST. You may think it brilliant Nuts, but you may have some kind of affinity for forms and accounting. I'm sure there are plenty of accountants who are very happy with the GST because they sure got more work out of it. The black economy expanded after the GST and the complexities of the machinery allowed quite lawful GST avoidance as well. One Gold Coast operator I dealt with simply divided his work into four separate businesses and kept each one below the $50,000 threshold.