The article in today’s Australian newspaper regarding the inquiry initiated by Treasurer Costello highlighted a major anomaly in this debate.

The Nationals Senator for Queensland, Barnaby Joyce, believes comparing Australia’s tax arrangements with that of countries like Japan, USA, Germany New Zealand and Britain is avoiding the total picture.

“When we discuss tax systems and potential reforms, one must be cautious in making comparisons with countries at much later stages of economic infrastructure development,” Senator Joyce said.

“Australia is not known for its Autobarns or bullet trains or grids of cross country dual carriage highways. Comparing Australia with Germany, Japan and the US for our comparative tax rates leaves behind the issue of where they are compared to where we are with regards to the provision of public infrastructure,” he said.

Our National Highway that travels north from the Sunshine Coast is two lanes and there are still areas that flood with heavy rain. Alternate heavy transport routes that could cut 13 hours off the Cairns Melbourne trip should be part of our national infrastructure expenditure plan prior to, or at the least whilst, looking at tax cuts.

Likewise there are still large requirements for dams in the far North and we are unable to properly monitor and regulate our Antarctic fishing grounds.

“I realise that tax rates are a great issue to look at because we all would like to take home more pay. However, let us make sure we discuss the whole Australian picture not a corner of it,” he said.


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