The GST, Other Taxes and Red Tape

John Howard Lie #1

John Howard: “No, there’s no way that a GSTwill ever be part of our policy.”
Journalist: “Never ever?”
John Howard: “Never ever. It’s dead. It was killed by the voters in the last election”.
John Howard, interview, Tweed Heads Civic Centre, 2 May 1995

The Truth:

“The bills before the House will enact a broad based goods and services tax that will be levied at 10 per cent and will start in July 2000.”
Peter Costello, Treasurer, A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax Bill), Second Reading Speech, 2 December 1998

John Howard Lie #2

“The GST will not increase the price of petrol for the ordinary motorist . . .”
John Howard, Address to the Nation on the Tax Plan, 13 August 1998

The Truth:

The price of automotive fuel rose 10.4 per cent in the September quarter following the introduction of the GSTon 1 July 2000, and was 23.6 per cent higher than at the same time the previous year.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, ABS@, Time Series Spreadsheets, Consumer Price Index 6401.0

John Howard Lie #3

“There’ll be no more than a 1.9% rise in ordinary beer.”
John Howard, John Laws Program, 23 September 1998

The Truth:

The price of beer rose 4.8 per cent in the September quarter following the introduction of the GSTon 1 July 2000, and was 8.5 per cent higher than the same time the previous year.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, ABS@, Time Series Spreadsheets, Consumer Price Index 6401.0

John Howard Lie #4

Journalist: “Will the number of pages in the Tax Act be reduced by the introduction of a GST? ”
Prime Minister: “Yes it will”.
John Howard, interview Alan Jones Radio 2UE, 14 August 1998

The Truth:

“. . . the Tax Act has grown from 3,000 to over 9,000 pages and an additional 2.5 million words have been inserted into the Tax Act, since 1 July 2000. Apart from these overwhelming changes foisted onto small businesses, we now have over 2 million businesses registered under the GST, compared to less than 17,000 under the former sales tax regime.”
National Tax & Accountants’ Association, 15 August 2002

John Howard Lie #5

Kerry O’Brien: “Okay. the pledge of no new taxes, no increase in existing taxes for the life of the next parliament. So for the next three years, not even a one cent increase on cigarettes or beer or wine or petrol, no other indirect tax increase, no tax increase of any kind?” John Howard: “That promise is quite explicit”.
John Howard, ABC 7:30 Report, 1 February 1996

The Truth:

By 30 September 2002, John Howard’s Government had introduced legislation for 130 new taxes or tax increases during its terms of office.

“Bills which imposed a new tax or increased an existing tax introduced during the 38th to 40th Parliaments”, Clerk of the Senate, 30 October 2002