Treasury has published on its website the information released under FOI in relation to the Red Book (a brief prepared by Treasury for the returned Labor Government).
Treasury says the Government is starting its 2nd term with an economy that is “performing strongly and approaching full employment”, but warns that it is not delivering in some areas. Treasury also expects the Government will have to deal with the implications of capacity constraints.
On the taxation front, the Red Book says that a number of policy settings, tax in particular, will “require adjustment”.
Treasury says “the sooner an emissions trading scheme can be implemented the better”.
According to the Red Book, reforming state taxes presents an opportunity to deliver a significant increase in long-term productivity.
The brief outlines a prioritisation of tax reforms in 5 key areas:
- ostate tax reform;
- oshift taxes away from domestic investment towards tax bases such as land, resources and consumption;
- otrust taxation provisions should be updated and rewritten;
- oreduce tax disincentives to work;
- oreduce complexity in the tax system.
Treasury says the Red Book has been updated for the Government’s agreements with the Greens and Mr Wilkie but not for the agreements with Mr Windsor and Mr Oakeshott.
[LTN 187, 27/9]