A leading economist has compared the political debate in Australia to the behaviour of one of the world's most famous cartoon families.
Access Economics director Chris Richardson says arguments about tax reform between Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten remind him of Homer Simpson choking his son Bart.
The comments came after Treasurer Joe Hockey announced plans to bring personal income tax cuts to the next election, and as he left the door open to extending the GST to healthcare.
However, Mr Hockey would not say how he would pay for the tax cuts, in what could amount to a $25 billion cut over four years, according to a previous estimate from Treasury Secretary John Fraser.
In a speech on Monday titled "The Economic Case for Personal Income Tax Cuts", Mr Hockey laid the groundwork for putting income tax cuts at the centre of the Abbott government's re-election strategy.
He said the government had "[no] other choice" but to cut taxes for middle and low-income households as without personal income tax cuts about 300,000 Australians would move into the second highest tax bracket in the next two years because of inflation and rising wages - referred to as "bracket creep".
Heading off concerns the tax cuts would create an even larger budget deficit, Mr Hockey said the government could cut taxes and repair the budget at the same time because the income tax cuts would encourage investment, boost jobs and economic growth, and then increase tax revenue.
But he also said the government could cut spending further, pointing to the public sector as an area where further savings could be found.
In a significant signal, Mr Hockey said the GST was only applied in a "narrow" way to Australia's goods, particularly to the healthcare sector, "which is essentially GST free".
"And because health is growing with the ageing population, it means that the tax base for the GST is narrow," Mr Hockey said.
The comments have been interpreted as a sign the government may be preparing the ground for GST changes - extending the GST to healthcare - that it could take to the next election.
Mr Richardson said he agreed with Mr Hockey's argument that Australia needed to stop relying on bad taxes, such as personal income tax, and start collecting better taxes, but he believed it would be impossible for the Treasurer to cut income taxes in the current political environment.
The Abbott government has virtually ruled out significant tax increases - besides the GST - and shifted $80 billion in health and education spending to the states, so it will be hard to find where major budget savings could be found.
"It can't be done. Success on budget repair and bracket creep is wholly a function of bipartisanship, and you know what the answer is there," Mr Richardson said.
"The budget debate in Australia is essentially Bart and Homer having a discussion, hands around each other's necks and choking.
"It's true that we should be doing something over fiscal drag ... this is something that is genuinely bad and we should be doing something about it."
Figures from the Parliamentary Library on Monday supported Mr Fraser's May estimate that bracket creep would result in taxpayers paying an additional $25 billion over four years.
They show that bracket creep will help the budget return to surplus in 2019/20, but if bracket creep was corrected the budget would not return to surplus for at least 10 years.
Greens Treasury spokesman Adam Bandt said the government's plan to cut taxes without raising other taxes would create more problems than it would solve.
"We don't have a budget crisis but we will have a revenue crisis if a $25 billion hole is punched in the government's income stream," Mr Bandt said.
Mr Shorten also mocked the prospect of tax cuts, saying that "when Joe Hockey talks about a tax cut you have to start putting your hand over your wallet".
CPA Australia chief executive Alex Malley lashed the Treasurer's speech for being "long on rhetoric and short on substance".
"Repeating the contents of the March discussion paper is not breaking news and does nothing to advance the imperative for tax reform," Mr Malley said.
The Business Council said that as well as cutting personal income taxes, there must be lower company taxes.
