Letter to leader of the opposition regarding a review into State Taxes
The Leader of the Opposition
Barry O’Farrell MP
Dear Barry,
I have followed with interest the Commonwealth Government’s Henry Review of Taxation, which of course necessarily touched on the inefficiencies of many State Taxes. As far as I am aware, the Henry Review failed to comprehensively review the following:
- State and Local Government fees and charges for Government services and in particular specific levies such as development levies and the like; and
- Government expenditure for all levels of Government.
It seems to me there is an opportunity for you to announce the following policy initiatives:
- A Henry style tax review into all State and Local taxes, fees, charges and levies that apply in NSW; and
- A review into the expenditure of State and Local Government in NSW.
From a policy perspective, I think insufficient focus has been placed on State taxes and just as importantly it is expenditure as well as revenue raising that must be critically and impartially assessed.
From a political perspective, I think some of the advantages of announcing a review into State Taxation are as follows:
- You can highlight how much the Labor Government have raised State taxes since they have been in power;
- You can highlight how much the Labor Government have raised fees and charges that are collected by the Public service;
- You can highlight how much more people are paying for Council Rates and services;
- You and your team can use the review as a means of deferring decisions on controversial government taxing initiatives such as the recent ad valorem tax without having to specifically reject the tax out of hand;
- It shows a willingness to fix the State’s taxes and charges, a willingness that the ‘tax and spend’ Keneally government has no desire to do.
Of course, announcing a review into expenditure will assist your economic credibility, particularly if you are serious about funding large scale infrastructure projects without raising unsustainable sums of public debt.
From my experience there is a serious question mark regarding the work ethic of many public servants at a State and Local level. Perhaps, as part of a detailed expenditure review it would be sensible to include terms of reference to review the productivity, performance and work culture of the public service. The goal would be to devise new systems and means of improving the productivity and performance of the public service both at the State and Local government level, without necessarily increasing expenditure.
Kind regards,
—
Lesli Berger
General Manager
Fivex Commercial Property
W: 02 8920 1233