29 March 2007

Treasure Peter Costello has made a formal statement to the press ahead of his meeting with state treasures.

“If Labor forms government federally, government in all of the states and the territories, they will be able to get unanimous agreement to increase the GST rate,” he said.

Costello said the GST could be as high as 17 per cent under Labor.

The Prime Minister followed suit.

“The only way you are going to get an increase in the GST, anyway, from a structural point of view would be if the commonwealth government and all the state governments agreed on it.”

“I take this opportunity of pointing out that if you have Labor governments at both levels, an agreement on something like that is far more likely," he said.

Labor has dismissed accusations that they will increase the tax, saying that this is another example of the Government distorting the truth.

According to Shadow Treasure Wayne Swan, the state treasures will voice their concerns about not being able to meet the federal demand that they cut more taxes.


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