Trump, Albanese and the Middle East drown out Chalmers’s tax reform reveal | Samantha Maiden

There are three very good reasons that Jim Chalmers flew under most people’s radar this week, writes Samantha Maiden.

It would be easy to blink and miss Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ big speech this week on a new tax reform agenda for three reasons.

First, World War 3 appears to be breaking out in the Middle East.

Second, the political class has spent the week obsessed with whether or not Anthony Albanese will get his 20 minute meeting with President Trump.

As an aside, the PM is currently considering chasing the reluctant US President all the way to the NATO summit at The Hague next week.

Which does sound a little bit like the diplomatic equivalent of that storylines involving Gigi in the movie He’s Just Not That Into You.

The third reason why it would be easy to miss what’s brewing is that the Treasurer is speaking in riddles about what the government is actually planning to do apart from telling us it will be “bold” and “ambitious”.

But it would be a mistake not to pay attention because whatever comes out of the Albanese Government’s second term think-fest about the road ahead is likely to define this current term of government and potentially the next.

Declaring a “mandate for change”, Dr Chalmers said that delivering election promises was the first priority but that the Government “had an obligation” to focus on “what comes after that”.

“No sensible progress can be made on productivity, resilience or budget sustainability without proper consideration of more tax reform,” Dr Chalmers said.

Dr Jim Chalmer addresses the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra on "Our Second Term Economic Agenda". Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“This is all about testing the country’s reform appetite, and I am willing to grasp the nettle. I am prepared to do my bit. The government is prepared to do its bit.”

Interestingly, he also highlighted the importance of “intergenerational justice”, which hints at policies to help younger Australians pay less income tax.

However, that could imply other mysterious individuals or entities – investors, wealthy superannuants, business, will have to pay more.

“Australia has to recognise that this is genuinely a defining decade. The decisions we make in the 2020s will determine the sort of living standards and intergenerational justice that we have in the decades to come,” Dr Chalmers said.

First, what is the Albanese Government not doing? It is not taking up the invitation from critics to scuttle plans to seek its tax teeth into wealthy Australians with more than $3 million in super.

“We’re not looking for opportunities to go back on the things that we have got a mandate for,” the Treasurer said.

“We’re looking for new ideas.”

New ideas? Like what? Good question but that’s where the riddle comes into the equation although some of those riddles are dropping some big hints.

First up, he warned the global transition to net zero will impact the huge revenues the budget receives from resources, talking up the need for an “evolution” of the taxation system including a new levy on electric car drivers.

Dr Chalmers confirmed that the government was working with the states on the “future of road user charging”, paving the way for taxing electric cars based on the kilometres they drive.

He insisted that the media also had a responsibility to foster an “environment conducive to reform and not hostile to reform”.

“We don’t pretend or assume that ideas should be above criticism, on the contrary. But there are a couple of aspects of this we need to consider together,” he said.

“Like the ‘rule-in-rule-out game’, in the media.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese embraces Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, front right, as French President Emmanuel Macron, back left, looks on after the family photo of world leaders and invited guests at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada on June 17. Picture: Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

“Of course there are things no sensible government will contemplate, but limiting ourselves to ruling things in or out forever has a cancerous effect on policy debates.

“It can rob an informed and modern country like ours of the flexibility and maturity to respond to big challenges.

During his speech at the press club, Mr Chalmers was asked if he had an open mind about revisiting the GST ahead of talks from senior economists and business leaders to inform the Albanese Government’s future agenda.

“Historically, I’ve had a view about the GST,” the Treasurer replied.

“I think it’s hard to adequately compensate people and I think often an increase in the GST is spent three or four times over with the — by the time people are finished with all the things they want to try and do with it.”

In other words, he’s not a fan.

“What I’m going to try and do, because I know the states will have a view on it, I’m going to trial not to dismiss every idea that I know that people will bring to the roundtable,’’ he added.

“I suspect the states will have a view about the GST. It’s not a view I’ve been attracted to historically, but I’m going to try not to get in the process of shooting ideas between now and the round table.

“So you’re not ruling it out?,” he was asked, prompting laughter.

“I haven’t changed my view on it. And, again, it’s a nice little cheeky attempt to get a rule-in-rule-out in,” he said.

“We genuinely want to hear people’s ideas.”

Originally published as Trump, Albanese and the Middle East drown out Chalmers’s tax reform reveal | Samantha Maiden