Addressing Australia’s medium term fiscal problem

Chief Economist at BT, Chris Caton believes Australia has a “medium term fiscal problem that can’t be addressed from one side, it has to be addressed from both the revenue side and the spending side.” Caton asserts that a way needs to be found to slow spending on growth health and pensions etc. On the other side of the coin “If you are going to look seriously at lifting revenue you go for the big stuff. So you look seriously at broadening the GST and/or lifting the rate…what we really need to do on the income tax side is plug some of the holes…that goes to negative gearing and it goes to superannuation tax concessions etc…we have got to get a consensus here that there are some costs to be paid and everyone is going to pay a bit. Watch the video below for more from Chis Caton on the interaction of the negative gearing with the capital gains tax system.