David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For the past few weeks I have been hosting a number of forums across my electorate and have also distributed a household survey dedicated to providing locals with the opportunity to put forward ideas about how we might improve our federal system of government.

With two major white papers being developed to identify potential reforms for improving the federation and Australia's tax system, many people from across my electorate have begun participating in this process. The Commonwealth government and the states are committed through the COAG process to developing the federation and tax white papers. With ongoing demand for the nation's finances we must continue to find new ways of delivering services more efficiently, avoiding the loss of taxpayer's dollar value via multiple fiscal transfers, or the so-called 'middleman effect'; ending the blame game; stopping ad hoc cost shifting; and removing the duplication and ambiguity of responsibility that often occurs between the three levels of government.

That is why we also need to look at how we can improve the whole tax system, making it simpler and fairer, increasing compliance with it and making it competitive with our competing jurisdictions. There is no one silver bullet or perfect solution to address the problems and challenges confronting the federation and the tax system. Many ideas have been floated by constituents, but many of them have suggested broadening or increasing the GST to reduce the tax burden on families, small business and employers. (Time expired)