Australia’s longest-serving finance minister, Liberal Nick Minchin, said the federal government had to look at increasing the GST rate or broadening its base in the next decade to deal with a long run of budget deficits that will make the central bank’s job tougher.
Mr Minchin, who was one of the architects of the 10?per cent GST, also said spending should be cut as part of a five to ten year medium-term fiscal strategy to deal with “huge” structural problems and a looming funding crisis.
“The GST, in terms of its rate and its scope, will have to be revisited in the medium term,” Mr Minchin told the AFR Weekend on Friday. “It’s unavoidable in terms of a revenue side and a consumption tax is the best way to address the revenue problem.”
