Australia Future Tax System

How much inequity should we allow?
Speech by Dr Ken Henry
Chair – Australia's Future Tax System Review Panel and Secretary to the
Treasury
Australian Council of Social Service National Conference
3 April 2009

It's not just an opportunity to get some important feedback for the review of Australia's tax and transfer system (and because it now appears to bear my name, I have even more incentive to get it right!). It's also a chance to do something for the battered reputation of the profession to which
I belong — economics.

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Tax Reform, Targeting the Tax Burden on Women

1. Since the 1980s the introduction of income tests on family payments has transformed Australia’s progressive individual income tax into a system with strong elements of joint taxation and a rate scale that has an inverted U-shaped profile – the highest marginal tax rates apply across low to average incomes and to the incomes of married mothers as second earners.
2. Personal Income Tax (PIT) cuts at high income levels and the expansion of the Low Income Tax Offset (LITO) over successive budgets have shifted the tax burden to average wage earners by replacing the strongly progressive rate scale of the PIT with one that is less progressive in general and no longer progressive over certain ranges.
3. The overall effect of income-tested family payments and the less progressive rate scale on personal incomes has been to fund tax reductions at top income levels by raising taxes on low to average wage working families, and with an especially heavy burden on working married mothers.
4. The set of policy measures to achieve this redistribution of the tax burden – income-tests on Family Tax Benefits (FTBs), the Medicare Levy (ML) and the LITO combined with tax cuts at high income levels – have resulted in an unnecessarily complex tax system. The changes amount simply to a change in the rate structure and base of the tax system that could have been made directly and openly.

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Attitudes to Maternity Leave in Australia

This research survey was conducted online in April 2009 with a total sample of 1703 Australian residents, segmented to be representative of the national population by age, gender and residential location.

The total sample of 1703 provides an error margin of +/- 2.4% at a 95% confidence level. This means that for a result of 50%, we can be 95% confident that the actual result would be between 47.6% and 52.4%.

For full respondent profile details, please see the appendix at the end of this report.

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Land Mark Survey supports Quotas for Boards

A landmark survey of females directors has revealed more than 50 percent support legislated gender quotas for public listed (ASX) company boards.

The survey was conducted online in September 2009 by leading advocate for boardroom change, for women

Claire Braund, Executive Director of women on Boards, said the unprecedent level of support shown in the survey for legislation gender quotas was indicative of the high of frustration among working women in Australia.

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IWFCI Newsletter December 2009

IWFCI Newsletter May 2009

IWFCI Newsletter April 2008

IWFCI Newsletter June 2007