THE proposed deficit tax mooted to form part of Tuesday’s Federal Budget is “not unreasonable” according to Federal Member for Mallee Andrew Broad.
Mr Broad refuted reports he opposed the idea of the levy, and said “there needs to be an equity of costs in the Australian community to put ourselves back on our feet”.
“The deficit levy — I have just been calling it a tax because anywhere where you take money out of your pocket and into the governments pocket it is a tax, we shouldn’t shirk away from that — but is there a role for higher income earners to pay a little bit more, yes there is,” he said.
“I don’t know whether the government is going to implement one or not, we will find out on budget night, but I am not against the idea.”
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has spoken out in support of the levy that is intended to cover some ground in putting the government back on the road to balancing the books.
Some have questioned whether imposing the tax would represent a broken election promise for Mr Abbott, but Mr Broad said politicians should not necessarily be held accountable to every comment made.
“I think the government is elected to govern, I think the news cycle that tries to lock everyone down into every little comment isn’t conducive to good government,” Mr Broad said.
In the lead up to the Federal Budget, preventing changes to the diesel fuel rebate had been a key concern for Mr Broad, and he said he was confident cuts would not feature in tomorrow’s budget.
“Everyone knew that this budget was going to be a difficult budget,” Mr Broad said.
“We have been spending more as a country than what we have been getting in in revenue… I don’t want to be a politician that just blames the other team, but it is pretty obvious that we have racked up quite a lot of expenditure — we have to close that gap.
“Even in this budget we are still going to spend more than we have got in.
“It is still going to be quite a while before we break even.”
The 2014-2015 Federal Budget will be released at 7.30pm on Tuesday.
