Narrative reform is what we need

August 18, 2025

What we need is reform of the way we report taxation. All the major projects in Australia have been financed by public money of one form or another and continue to be.

When there is a disaster like a bush fire, flood, drought etc we expect a prompt response in the form of rescues, handouts, fire-fighting equiptment, boats etc.

That has to be financed somehow.

The taxation debate is usually driven by those who can most afford to pay and benefit most from not paying a share. Like most economic debate, the interchanging of dollars and percentages is used to muddy the waters.

In an attempt to get elected and keep taxation low, sucessive governments have sold off infrastructure built with public money and that infrastructure has reached its use by date. Having benefitted from the profit, the private owners are looking for public money to upgrade and the government has now to find the taxes required to finance those upgrades. If we upgrade coal power stations, go nuclear or go to renewables, the government has to find the money. The debate is about who benefits the most and anything attached to mining benefits mining companies.