"STAGGERING" TAXES

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 130, 28 November 1940, Page 10

"STAGGERING" TAXES

Canberra announces by cable "staggering" Federal taxation. When the new Parliament opened its first session on November 20, there were signs of a conscious effort to stir up people to war reality. It was tacitly admitted that a large section of the public is still not aware that there is a war on, not having seen the fact sufficiently reflected in its standard of living, and not having felt the bombs of war. To repair the former omission was stated to be the new Federal Parliament's task. Wrote one commentator:

Perhaps the reality of the war's impact will come home for the first time to many Australians when they read the Budget. What must be involved in limitation of that liberty of private spending enjoyed hitherto will before long profoundly change their outlook.

Taxes that fall like bombs need to have a strong Government behind them. But at present the Menzies Government is almost without a majority, and what majority it has may disappear if a by-election goes against it. Therefore the question arises whether Mr. Menzies is strong enough to administer severe taxation medicine, in the absence of bombs. That question cannot be answered with confidence, but a hopeful sign is that the Labour Opposition did not oppose the appointment of a Speaker at the opening of the session; that the Labour Leader, Mr. Curtin, said he was prepared to debate the Budget in appreciation of the Government's position; and that Mr. Curtin also recognised that whether such a balanced Parliament would prove "workable" depended on "the capacity of both sides to move towards each other." If the Government and Labour can agree on taxation (wealth's contribution to the war) why should they disagree on other forms of war service, the only alternative to subjection and tyranny?