Taxing duties put delegates to sleep on the job at Swan's slumber-fest forum: Tony Smith Op Ed
06/10/11
They came, they saw, they conquered - their insomnia, that is.
The Tax Forum that Wayne Swan never wanted has ended, not with a bang, but a snore-fest.
The televised scenes of slumber were a direct reflection of the Forum's real world significance or lack thereof.
The community and business leaders in attendance out of sheer good manners were doubtless aware of the Forum's futility.
No wonder some participants felt free to catch up on their beauty sleep. But not everyone was going through the motions.
Independent MP Rob Oakeshott appeared quite enthusiastic about the whole event. But then it was his idea.
The Tax Forum was a demand foisted last year upon Julia Gillard as the price of Oakeshott's support for her government. And the Prime Minister promised in a formal letter to independent MPs that the Forum would be held "before 30 June 2011".
But we've since come to learn that guarantees by this Prime Minister guarantee nothing. The Forum was postponed and then shrunk. If anyone hoped the extra time granted to Swan might translate into added substance for this event, they should think again.
The biggest tax items on the Government's agenda the carbon and mining taxes were excluded from discussion.
Swan's effort to lowball expectations even extended to the nomenclature of the conference. In one media interview he insisted on calling it a "forum" rather than a "summit". When asked by a journalist to explain the difference, the Treasurer said that a forum included "about 150 people", while a summit was "a pretty tiny forum".
The mind reels. The simple fact is that Swan has never shown any interest in tax reform.
The income tax cuts of which the Treasurer now boasts were all cherry picked from Coalition policies. Swan simply implemented what had been previously planned, costed and announced by Peter Costello.
The last bout of genuine tax reform occurred under the Coalition with the introduction of the GST in 2000. The GST package included massive income tax cuts and the abolition of a host of sclerotic and inefficient taxes.
During parliamentary debate on the GST in 1999, Swan deemed it a "bastard tax". But the GST is an illegitimate love-child no longer in Labor's eyes. The Treasurer has adopted it as his very own and he happily preserves and protects it.
Rob Oakeshott has also demanded that the Treasurer should issue a formal report on the Forum by Christmas. But report about what?
There is no Santa Claus, at least where this Government is concerned. And it's difficult to imagine that even the elvish wordsmiths burning the midnight oil in Swan's ministerial office will be able to conjure something out of nothing.
The only thing this Tax Forum will produce is a piece of proverbial coal in Oakeshott's political Christmas stocking.
Yet the hollow gab-fest nature of the Tax Forum should really come as no surprise. The Rudd/Gillard Government has considerable form when it comes to style-over-substance events.
Swan's Tax Forum of 2011 is highly reminiscent of Kevin Rudd's 20/20 Summit of 2008. The only real difference is the absence of Hollywood A-list talent at this year's tax event.
Despite the glitz and glamour provided by Cate Blanchett and Hugh Jackman, the 20/20 Summit proved to be little more than an exercise in navel-gazing by the bold and the beautiful.
The Tax Forum has served as a similarly useless exercise for policy wonks.
And if Oakeshott thinks this Tax Forum will provide him with some sort of legacy or claim to political fame, he's sorely mistaken. The Forum is just a minor speed bump in the road to Canberra, quickly to be forgotten as it recedes in the rear view mirror of Australian politics.
Victorian Liberal Tony Smith is the opposition spokesman for tax reform