It's funny, when the GST came around, I thought the idea of it was to LOWER taxes slightly. 

It's fair enough that they raise taxes if they need greater public services, I can appreciate that. But do they have to spend it on such useless things?

For example, remember when Australia contributed 1 billion to Indonesia? What a waste of taxpayers money!

The Federal Govt may give handouts to families with children - but it's tough for a single person with no children - and particularly for the young.  Many are caught up on only a few hours casual work each week.  The general public may believe this is because they are reluctant to go from welfare to work - this couldn't be further from the truth.

Many large companies now just pick and chose at their whim.  Whoever is available at a moments notice gets the job for the day - which is very unfair if an employee is trying to look for extra work at the same time he's requested to work for a couple of hours.

We seem to forget the pollies superannuation slush fund - now holding 87 billion dollars.  This is where a huge proportion of our taxes have gone to - to ensure that the politicians are guaranteed their massive superannuation payouts in the future. 

This is money that could be invested in infrastructure - job incentives - health and education.

http://news.smh.com.au/national/calls-for-overhaul-of-nsw-tax-system-20080612-2pf3.html

The NSW government is overly reliant on property, motor vehicle and insurance taxes and should devise a simpler, more transparent system, a report recommends.

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) on Thursday released its draft paper on the NSW tax system, suggesting wide-ranging changes.

IPART said the most effective changes would come through a national approach to tax reform, with the federal government currently undertaking a "root and branch" tax review.

"There are difficulties arising from the commonwealth's existing approach to sharing payments between the states," IPART chief executive Jim Cox said in a statement.

"In particular, the approach used for revenue sharing can discourage states from reforming taxes and distort commonwealth and state government expenditure priorities."

IPART on Thursday called on the NSW government to move away from its "over-reliance on transaction-type taxes" on property, motor vehicles and insurance products.

Instead, it should look at introducing annual taxes on asset holdings or economic activity, the draft report said.

"The NSW tax system should be broader based, with simple and transparent taxes, which would be fairer to business and the individual," Mr Cox said.

The report calls on the NSW government to cut payroll tax from six per cent to 5.75 per cent, and reduce the tax-free threshold from $600,000 to $500,000.

NSW Treasurer Michael Costa announced in last week's budget that payroll tax would be reduced to 5.75 per cent from next year, and then to 5.5 per cent over three years.

However, the tax-free threshold will rise to $623,000 and then be indexed in line with inflation from July 1, 2008.

IPART has also recommended the government reduce the stamp duty on general insurance from nine per cent to six per cent.

It wants stamp duty exemptions for third party motor vehicle personal injury insurance scrapped.

Mr Costa said the IPART review was commissioned before the commonwealth announced its own review, and many of the recommendations would be referred to the federal government.

He said the government supported a number of the draft review's recommendations, such as scrapping the tax on the purchase of caravans and camper trailers, subject to the state's financial position.