I still think that Albanese isn’t so much scared of the Coalition as keen to keep a cosy relationship with them, to use ‘bipartisanship’ as an excuse to not do things that they promised but don’t want to.

But call it what it always was, a charge – a price – for dumping rubbish.

All true Kim, but West Australians need to throw out this Labor government and put in a government that will get it done (that’s not the Coalition), or accept being nothing more than glorified serfs to the gas companies.

I agree with you in regard to the GST per se, it is a regressive tax that hurts the poor proportionally more than those with the wealth. However, this article is primarily about how the WA is failing to get revenue from the gas companies for selling our gas, and in part how the GST is distributed, but not the merits of how the tax raises that revenue.

Yes please. Let’s start by dismantling those (as Gonggongche rightly calls them) “arbitrary” vestiges of our colonial, very recent past, “the states,” in favour of the more established, pre-colonial divisions of country.

BRING BACK THE CARBON TAX!!!

Oh dear, and to all above .. here we go again. Michael Smith this time. Is there a little club with members lined up to put out this nonsense? And determined never to look at the reality of the CPRS?

For the rich and against the poor. Which is where the whole thing can be seen as a house of cards, filled with a pack of lies. Looked at in the cold light of day, the economy as we have it is disfunctional. Economic theory is the dust thrown in our eyes to maintain the status quo, which it does very well. The status of the quo is certainly going nowhere. This little quo refuses to swallow the story, anyway.

Ahhh! The joy of carried forward losses, and the complexity of international tax law… not to mention the law firms on retainer, lest an audit results in white collar crime charges being laid…

Why do they put up with it? As a segue, why do women “put up” with FDV?

Better the devil you know, I guess…

Another segue…. Maritime law. Another kettle of fish altogether. Offshore gas. The jurisdiction is very blurry there, I suspect.

personally, I don’t think there’s any silver bullet to sort this cluster f*ck out, anytime soon.

And a very nice theory it is. It’s how it was sold when it began – a panacea. However looking around I don’t see any equality. I think the theory fell through the cracks of reality. The same people are in poverty as pre-GST; the Gap is as bad as before. And I live in WA where we’re supposedly all rolling in dough. I don’t have anything against paying tax, in fact I believe we are, in general, paying too little. We should identify the problems that we believe MUST be fixed, cost them and tax accordingly to do the job. (And of course submarines are not even remotely on the list.)

The ABC can find all the economists it likes but they don’t have an ounce of humanism between them, and let’s face it, economic theory only works for the rich. As I see it.

Cheers.