Rob Oakeshott calls for Government response to forum by Christmas

Independent MP Rob Oakeshott says the Government should release its response to the Tax Forum by Christmas and has expressed surprise that a communiqué would not be released from the conference.

Speaking as he entered day two of the forum Oakeshott said a pre-Christmas response should be made as a matter of courtesy to the participants.

He reiterated his call for real action to come out of the forum but said it was a matter for the participants how the second day went.

The man responsible for the government’s vaunted review of the tax system, former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, described discussions at the forum as “very encouraging” but stressed that tax reform should not be pursued independently of fiscal circumstances.

“We should talk, we should listen, we should argue – in short we should debate,” Henry said in an opening address to the second day of the Tax Forum in Canberra.

“We should debate these matters so the public at large has an understanding of where the national interest lies,” Henry said, adding that the case for reform is strong and grows stronger by the day.

But he warned that even when preconditions for recommendations have been established implementation will likely be difficult, with opposition likely to come from vested interest and politicians, and that “time-consuming intergovernmental agreements” would be required.  

He cautioned that participants should not insist that every change needs to be fair or equitable.

“I’ve heard a number of times that every tax should be fair or equitable, but that doesn’t make sense,” he says, adding that equity incentives should be pursued only through the personal income and transfer system.