We ran a headline last week: ‘The community must be engaged in this tax review process’.
It was quoting Deputy Charles Parkinson, the man whose recent destiny has been to lead this last chance saloon project, and one who can argue that he has already taken the public with him at least part-way on this journey, if his general election performance is anything to go by.
He was certainly right in one thing. This iteration of the tax review needs to take the public along ‘in a way that previous debates on tax have not’.
But unless the States continues to promulgate the line that corporate tax will be sufficient to stop GST – will anyone be listening?
The previous cycle of tax reviews got off to a shocking start. P&R’s strategy was blunt, off-target and clumsy at best.
Since then the game, and the proposals, have been massaged in a new direction. But while the election shows that the public can be swayed, what are they supposed to be listening to this time around?
People will rally around a cause – when it comes to politics, usually against it. While transparency in the process will be welcome, it won’t be an easy journey for Deputy Parkinson and co, particularly when the public is likely to be seeking only one particular answer.
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