Some people are never satisfied. It seems that Dixon is one of them
Imagine the scene: Wembley stadium, London, 1985. An estimated 99,000 people are starting to leave after watching a show that was broadcast to an estimated television audience of 400 million people in 60 countries.
In London, and across the Atlantic in Philadelphia, more than 50 of the world’s leading music acts have staged by far the biggest event of its kind to raise money for famine relief in Africa.
The concert organiser, Bob Geldof, is wandering around on the stage in London, doubtless reflecting on the hard work and logistics of staging the 16-hour Live Aid event, and the hundreds of millions of dollars raised.
Someone from the crowd shouts out to him: “Is that it?”
If Bob Geldof felt deflated at that moment, that was nothing compared to how we felt last month, when the Government released its long awaited response to Treasury head Ken Henry’s review of the taxation system.
For months, Henry had led a team of highly skilled and highly knowledgeable bureaucrats to fashion a report that could fundamentally overhaul the tax system in this country, radically simplify and streamline it, and create a system that could effectively underpin a modern, dynamic economy for decades to come.
The review’s terms of reference said: “The comprehensive review of Australia’s tax system will examine and make recommendations to create a tax structure that will position Australia to deal with the demographic, social, economic and environmental challenges of the 21st century and enhance Australia’s economic and social outcomes.”
Don’t forget that the review was commissioned by the Government. The Government wrote the terms of reference. The Government knew what it was getting into. So, after receiving a report that by all accounts brilliantly discharged its commission, and which ran, in total, to more than 1000 pages, what did the Government give us in response? A dribble of increased super contributions, a fiddle with the contributions caps (again), piddly tax relief for small business, and a giddying new tax on miners.
Anti-climactic? You bet. Is that it?
I’ve never met Ken Henry, but I’ve seen him on telly, and he seems to be a man of great intellect, unquestioned integrity and who has an absolutely vice-like grasp of economic policy issues. And he likes wombats. A lot. No-one who likes wombats as much as Ken Henry does can be a bad bloke.
Henry dutifully suffered through Treasurer Wayne Swan’s press conference. I assume he knew beforehand what was coming, so at least it wasn’t news to him.
Swan denies that Henry was grumpy with the Government’s response – Swan says Henry always looks that way – but I’ve seen that look before. It’s the look on the football coach’s face when the chairman says he has the full support of the board. It’s the look on the sacked Minister’s face when the Prime Minister says he’s being “promoted” to a new portfolio. It’s the look on the parent’s face in the headmaster’s office that says: “I’ll deal with you later!”
OK, it’s true that it is any government’s absolute prerogative to accept or reject, as it sees fit, the findings of any review it commissions. It has rejected outright almost 30 of the review’s recommendations. Fair enough. But that leaves more than 100 that it has not rejected, but which it’s also not implementing.
It’s also true that implementing even 100 separate recommendations is a task that would take years and years. And it’s even true that some of the good stuff in Henry might yet see the light of day, in years and decades ahead.
Even so, for a report of this importance and potential to produce such a response so … well, piss-weak is the only term that really does it justice … was incredibly disappointing.
The release of the Henry tax review did answer one key question for me, though. I realise now that it was a review of the tax system, conducted by someone called Henry. Up until then I hadn’t dared admit that I didn’t know what a Henry tax was – nor why it needed to be reviewed.
Dixon Bainbridge is no expert on tax, but he knows a cop-out when he sees one. You can contact Dixon on info@conexusfinancial.com.au
