Australians still expect government to solve big problems and provide universal services, and evidence suggests they will pay more tax if it is fair and well spent.
The Centre for Policy Development has produced a well-researched document – Purpose of government pulse: Australian attitudes towards government and democracy, based on surveys of people’s expectations of government, democracy and politics. They find that:
People are asking for a system that is honest, ambitious and capable of delivering. The challenges facing the country are vast and complex, but they provide a rare opportunity for governments to show they are up to the task and listening to what people need.
That may come across as a generic statement of people’s expectations, but in fact it asserts that we want capable governments, in contrast to a belief that people want “small government”, and in contrast to the belief, driving anti-democratic movements on the far right, that democracies are intrinsically incapable of satisfying people’s needs. We haven’t given up on democracy.
We want governments that can anticipate emerging problems and deal with them. That goes against the conventional wisdom that the electorate will always punish a government that asks us to make immediate sacrifices for future benefits.
We are enthusiastic about universal services in health and education. That’s an endorsement of the basic principles of Medicare and is possibly a reaction against the residualisation of school education as a service only for those who cannot afford private schooling.
Gareth Hutchens has used his summary of the report to draw attention to unease in other areas where voters feel governments have rushed into major decisions, taking into account the views of lobbyists but not those of the electorate. The Morrison government’s AUKUS is a standout example, but as he points out the current government has been no less secretive on major defence deals, and has embraced data centre investment with enthusiasm before discussing the industry’s costs and benefits with the public. (By contrast think of the extensive consultation that accompanied the Hawke-Keating industry policy changes.)
The Centre for Policy Development has done a service in reminding policymakers about what Australians reasonably expect from government. As one reads the report, however, it becomes clear that we want more from government than we are currently paying through our taxes.
That omission leaves the work vulnerable to the accusation that it’s simply a confirmation of the age-old contradiction that we want more from government than we are willing to pay, and that there is no way we would consent to higher taxes because everybody knows Australia is already a high-tax country.
Both the assumption and the assertion in that accusation are wrong. There is a solid body of research showing that we are willing to pay more in tax, provided it is collected fairly, spent in accordance with our needs, and is not wasted. And the assertion that we are a high-tax country is plain wrong: as has often been pointed out in these roundups. In comparison with other high-income OECD countries, our taxes are close to the lowest.
It would strengthen the message in this and similar work if it were to pay more attention to the ways we can collect the revenue to provide the type of government Australians want.
Republished from Ian McAuley’s Bear Weekly Round Up
Ian McAuley is a retired lecturer in public finance at the University of Canberra. He can be contacted at “ian” at the domain “ianmcauley.com” .