Opinion by Paul Williams
Premium Content A quiet revolution is unfolding in Australia s economy, but few are aware of it. On May 11, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will rewrite many of the economic orthodoxies the Coalition and Labor have championed for almost four decades. Before the economic reforms of Labor s Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, 1970s Australia - like much of the Western world - battled high unemployment and inflation with higher taxes and big spending. But next Tuesday, after nearly 40 years of that mantra, the idea that small government alone can fix economic problems will be sorely tested. In next week s Federal Budget, Frydenberg (if not quite performing a 180-degree turn) will at least point us toward a Keynesian world for the first time since Kevin Rudd s global financial crisis response - itself a temporary aberration rather than a new way.
John Minas and James Minas
May 4, 2021
Ever wondered why you’re still collecting receipts for tax deductions on the off-chance the ATO wants to see them?
A decade ago, fired up by what he’d read in the Henry Tax Review, Labor treasurer at the time Wayne Swan promised to end what he said was the “hassle of shoeboxes full of receipts”.
From 2012, everyone would be offered a standard deduction of $500 in lieu of claiming work-related and tax-preparation expenses. It was to climb to $1,000 from 2013, and 6.4 million Australians could stop stuffing shoeboxes.
Then, a year later, his focus changed. He had decided not to proceed because of a separate change to the tax-free threshold that he said would free 1 million taxpayers from lodging returns.
Ever wondered why you’re still collecting receipts on the off-chance the Tax Office wants to see them?
A decade ago, fired up by what he’d read in the Henry Tax Review, Labor Treasurer Wayne Swan promised to end what he said was the “hassle of shoeboxes full of receipts”.
From 2012 onwards everyone would be offered a standard deduction of $500 in lieu of claiming work-related and tax-preparation expenses. It was to climb to $1,000 from 2013. 6.4 million Australians could stop stuffing shoeboxes.
Then a year later his focus changed. He had decided not to proceed because of a separate change to the tax-free threshold he said would free 1 million taxpayers from lodging returns.
Ever wondered why you’re still collecting receipts on the off-chance the Tax Office wants to see them?
A decade ago, fired up by what he’d read in the Henry Tax Review, Labor Treasurer Wayne Swan promised to end what he said was the “hassle of shoeboxes full of receipts”.
From 2012 onwards everyone would be offered a standard deduction of $500 in lieu of claiming work-related and tax-preparation expenses. It was to climb to $1,000 from 2013. 6.4 million Australians could stop stuffing shoeboxes.
Then a year later his focus changed. He had decided not to proceed because of a separate change to the tax-free threshold he said would free 1 million taxpayers from lodging returns.
In the early days of the Hawke Government, when Labor and a dynamic young treasurer, Paul Keating, kept confounding a hostile and suspicious business community with market-friendly policies, the cartoonist Patrick Cook would draw the then former treasurer John Howard as a battle scarred veteran.
Howard was covered in plasters and bandages of the battles of which the legends grew that he d had with his prime minister Malcolm Fraser, to try to push a deregulatory agenda that was then sweeping other parts of the Western world.
By the time Paul Keating was handing down budgets, Cook s Howard had been reduced to a legless but heavily medalled old warrior on a skateboard, glumly looking on as his Zegna-suited successor strolled past, declaring nonchalantly there was nothing to it .