Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I was asked about tax and the tax forum coming up in a few weeks time. I was creating the baseline fact that I think people need to know that tax as a share of GDP is less now than when this government was first elected in 2007 and certainly less than the highest taxing peak under the Howard government, as the highest taxing government in the nation's history.

I am asked by the member for Lyne about the efficiency of taxes. On the question of the efficiency of taxes, the government has been engaged in a tax reform agenda, including the tax reform agenda associated with lifting the tax-free threshold, which takes one million Australians out of the tax system. The member for Lyne has also directed my attention to the inefficiency of state taxes—the number of them and the inefficiency of them.

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