In Australia's first five decades as a Federation, tax reform efforts were driven by the need to establish robust revenue bases for a growing nation and settle relative taxing responsibilities of the Commonwealth and state governments. These decades were also a time of crises with two world wars...

In 1995, John Howard, the newly elected leader of the Opposition, reflecting on the Coalition’s loss of the 1993 federal election on the back of the Labor government’s goods and services tax (GST) scare campaign, said ‘never ever’ for a GST. However, a year later, when the Coalition was...

After the tumult of the Whitlam government, the Fraser government (1975-1983) saw consolidation with less reform. The 1975 Asprey report remained largely unactioned, despite the fundamental problems that burdened the Australian tax system. The 1983 election of the Hawke government, however, set...