Allegra Spender - Speak with Fork Tongue on Tax Reform

Fascinating. Just fascinating.

Wentworth MP Allegra Spender has put out a paper on tax reform. Yawn. As I have said time and time and time and time again … there is no politica constituency for tax reform until there is spending reform.

Hawke-Keating undertook massive spending reform before their tax reform package.

Howard-Costello ditto.

Read the story for yourself, however, this caught my eye in the Australian’s reporting:

Ms Spender opposed the government’s proposed increase in the tax rate on super funds worth more than $3m in parliament this year. She said she had been opposed to the tax because it would have been levied on unrealised gains and not actual profits made in the fund.

“Tax on unrealised gains is bad policy,” she said.

So Ms Spender is opposed to tax on unrealised gains is she then.

According to Ms Spend in her tax green paper, she advocates for a broad based land tax:

Reducing stamp duty – funded in the long term through higher land taxes

Is not a land tax just another tax on an unrealised gain?

Riddle me that Ms Spender.

Maybe she should have called her document Tax by the Greens Paper.