I don't want to see another penny go into the future fund. It's a fund to pay government employee's superannuation - defined benefit liabilities that no business worth its salt have offered for years. Companies have, for the most part, managed to successfully buy out their defined benefit liabilities and roll those members over to a defined contribution (and in doing so shift the risk from employer to employee). Why hasn't/can't the government do the same? How do they get away with persisting with it?
I'd love to see the future fund's funds go towards a piece of income generating infrastructure for the good of all Australians (considering they are our tax dollars after all) - something like Labor's broadband plan would be great but not without its challenges. Build the infrastructure, retain ownership within the fund and charge Telstra, Optus and all the wannabe telcos to have access to it.
Back on topic now though. I liked the suggestion of the 5yr CGT discount, but I would have it restricted to neutral or income generating investments only, ruling out all those tax payers that get other tax payers to foot their bills through negative gearing from having access to even more benefits. This would make investment in items that produce an economic benefit more attractive and help reduce the tax burden on us all.
I'd also like to see more money given to R&D and education. As Paul Keating said, [SIZE=-1]we can no longer afford to be the[/SIZE] lucky country, we have to become the smart country. Things should be put into place to encourage a culture of invention and innovation and there needs to be a process put in place to aid people commercialise ideas and if possible keep them (atleast in part) under Australian ownership - if Aussie tax payer dollars go to help develop them, Australia should reap some of the benefits of the end product.
Ultimately I'd love to see tax law simplified from the behemoth it is down to a few simple ideas. This should help reduce the cost of collecting tax so they can charge less to begin with. All tax does is shift the decision to spend a dollar from the people/companies to the government which is more-often-than-not much less efficient at allocating capital. I understand this isn't likely this budget, or even under this government.
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