Barnett won’t rule out tax hikes
Colin Barnett’s trying to bag the Gallop Government for raising taxes during this term of government. The fact is, though, taxes were raised because the economic forecasts were poor. The choice was between raising some charges, or running a deficit budget.
Barnett knows this, which is why he attacked the former Under-Treasurer John Langoulant (now head of the CCI) as responsible for the taxes:
“No one would have played a more significant role in those tax increases than the Under-Treasurer.”
Here, Barnett has admitted that the decision to increase taxes was based on advice from the Treasury. It was based on the economic forecasts and was the most responsible decision to take under the circumstances.
As soon as the economic forecasts were revised upwards, Geoff Gallop apologised for the mistake and gave back a billion dollars in tax cuts.
But for all his criticism of the government, Colin Barnett won’t rule out tax hikes if he is elected (West, p7):
But while he attacked Dr Gallop’s record on taxes, Mr Barnett refused to categorically rule out any tax increases under a coalition government.
Refused to rule out tax hikes? Come on, Colin — put your money where your mouth is!
He’s Emulating his good mate Howard’s “Never Ever” GST. Will Barney’s “promises be “core” or “Non-Core” Unfortunatly the WA Liberal Fanzine aka THe West will no doubt rally the Blue-Bloods and the Gulliable to vote for these Bozos from Bedrock :-(
Let’s have some early predictions, shall we?
Gallop has a seven seat majority. He’ll probably lose a couple of seats like Albany and Riverton. Possibly Bunbury. Then again, he could take out one or two metro Lib seats. Perhaps Kingsley.
It’s reasonable to posit a Gallop majority of between 1 and 5.
By the by, Mumble.com.au correctly predicted the Federal election result to the exact seat majority, and is suggesting, in spite of the polls, Gallop will get home.
Anything can happen, of course, but in spite of the government’s short-comings, I’m not sure there is any widespread urge to throw it out.
“The fact is, though, taxes were raised because the economic forecasts were poor. The choice was between raising some charges, or running a deficit budget.”
Why is cutting spending not a choice?
And Steve, I thought it was 4 seats, not seven?
Gallop has 32 seats against 25. Therefore, he has a majority of 7. If Gallop was to lose 4 seats he’d no longer have a majority, and Barnett could (possibly) form government with independent support.
Remember that most of the independents are Liberal-leaning. They would certainly demand concessions, but Barnett would have little difficulty forming a minority government.
South Perth is an interesting case as Phil Pendall is Retiring, and will most likely go Liberal, thanks to having John McGrath from the West standing, but then again due to the redistribution it got part of Victoria Park which of course was part of Gallop’s seat.
Alfred cove will no doubt see it being retained by Janet Woolard due to Keireth and his Postergate whinges.
Churchlands will stay with Liz Constable.
Eh, I wouldnt mind tax increases, so long as they are being spent effectively – which is really the question here.
Is Labor ruling out tax hikes, or even new taxes? Do you believe their pledge if they are saying “yes, we are ruling out new taxes and tax hikes”. Are they planning on disguising tax hikes as charges, fees, levies, stamp duties, excises, etc? NSW Labor has been playing these tricks for nine years.
I love it when dickheads like you jump in when you’ve got no idea what’s going on over here.
Colin Barnett called on Gallop to rule out tax increases. Gallop said, no, I’m not going to make a sweeping guarantee because circumstances might change.
Barnett was then asked if he would rule out tax increases. He said, no, because circumstances might change.
Double standards and hypocrisy.