Talk:Goods and Services Tax (Australia)

Possible Wiki Links

I am currently testing an automated Wikipedia link suggester. Here are the results of running it on this article:

• Can link bank account: ...ious minor taxes such as stamp duty and bank account debits tax. All goods and services exce...
• Can link birthday cake: ... GST would be incurred in the cost on a birthday cake. Hewson stonewalled and was unable answ...
• Can link Australian Labor Party: ...held a majority in the lower house, the Australian Labor Party and the Democrats held the majority col...

Notes: The article text has not been changed in any way; Some of these links may be wrong, some may be right; You can leave positive feedback or negative feedback; Please feel free to delete this section from the talk page. -- Nickj 05:38, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Restored deleted page

Hi, I've restored this page. It had a whole history, with COTW tags and everything. I'm not sure why it was deleted. - Ta bu shi da yu 10:25, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

No GST Party

Should the No GST Party be mentioned here (and should that article be linked to this)? Dave.Dunford 29 June 2005 10:05 (UTC)

Probably not. They are a micro-party with virtually no support, and I think the article clearly establishes that there was a lot of political difficulty getting the GST implemented. Kewpid 9 July 2005 13:29 (UTC)

History section

The history section is clearly incomplete. It ends with the 1998 election and establishes the Liberal-National coalition had a reduced majority of seats but doesn't explain how Australia moved from there to the GST in 2000. Looking back into the history of the article, it looks as if someone planned to update it but never got around to it

IMHO the problem with this stub is that there isn't anything but the history. I've wikified it somewhat, though could do with a lot more work.

One bit I just chopped was "However he apparently had a change of heart and reintroduced the GST into the national agenda. While the coalition government held a majority in the lower house, Labor and the Australian Democrats held the majority collectively in the Senate effectively denying the government the necessary numbers to introduce the tax." It's too POV. Maybe with some dates and some quotes, it could be salvagable.

Regards, Ben Aveling 07:53, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

I think the Mike Willesee quote needs to be checked. I've come across various wordings, but no definitive record. Can anyone assist? Fatfingers 23:14, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

IMHO the influence of the "Birthday Cake interview" is overrated, and certainly doesn't deserve to be presented in the article as the sole reason for Hewson's failure. Was any study conducted or was that just someone's speculation? What I remember more is Keating's incessant attacks, and a nauseatingly bad Liberal rally on election eve. Also the interview was not in a cake shop, in fact it was Keating who made a campaign blunder in a cake shop. Rocksong 11:50, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Democrats

"While the Democrats had opposed the GST during the 1998 election campaign" - while this is certainly the popular view, it is incorrect as far as I can tell. This quote from the ABC archive at http://www.abc.net.au/election98/news/diary/week03.htm is one of several very similar statements I found:

"Democrats leader Meg Lees announced yesterday the Democrats would block a GST in the Senate unless food was exempted from the tax and other concessions were negotiated. The other concessions included taking a GST off books and tourism packages sold offshore, tightening tax loopholes, and restructuring tax cuts to reduce benefits for high-income earners."

Also, my recollection is that Senator Stott Despoja did not cross the floor over the GST per se, but because books were not exempt. Not sure about Senator Bartlett.

In political reality probably it doesn't matter, because Democrats voters felt betrayed. But the statement that the Democrats opposed the GST doesn't seem correct. If there's no opposition, I'll rewrite that section in a few days. Rocksong 05:54, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

p.s. the Australian Democrats page seems to have the story right. Rocksong 06:01, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Too political

Too much of a focus on politics in this article. I'd suggest inclusion of:

- role of the ATO in administering the tax;

- discussion of BAS statements; and,

- the Australian Business Number system.

 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.63.14.70 (talk) 22:11, 19 May 2011 (UTC)