NO.048

Simon “Conroy” Crean Admits GST Rollback Means Higher Taxes, Lower

Pensions

A rollback of the GST would mean higher personal income tax rates and lower

pensions, Shadow Treasurer Simon Crean admitted today.

In a frank response to a talkback radio caller today (5DN) Simon Crean said

that: –

Caller:

Good morning Jeremy, good morning Mr Crean. Mr Crean having voted and campaigned

against the GST, will the Labor Party abolish this unfair taxation if they

gain power?

Crean:

Henry, no. And we made that clear at the time that we were doing the campaigning

against it. We tried to stop it getting through and we almost succeeded.

But we said once it was in, you couldn’t unscramble the eggs. There’s too

much sunk cost and effort particularly by business in the community has

been put in to trying to cope with it. The last thing you want to do is

to put them back through the wringer of tax reform. If you take

off the GST you’ve got to look at the questions of what does it mean for

personal income tax rates, what’s it mean for pensions, what’s it mean in

terms of the indirect tax base generally. So what we’ve said

is we can’t abolish it but we can make it fairer. We can make it simpler.

And that’s what rollback is.

Mr Crean has now conceded the point that we have been making, and which Stephen

Conroy admitted last month – that if you take off GST you have to increase

income taxes or reduce pensions.

At that time the Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, repudiated Senator Conroy.

Will he now repudiate Mr Crean?

CANBERRA

5 July 2001