Debunking a long told Liberal Party lie.
Morrison will put spin on this story that Warnie & Zampa would be in awe of.
Jim Chalmers says the two highest-taxing governments of the past 30 years have been Coalition governments. Is that correct?
So, what does the data show?
The data shows that the Coalition under Mr Howard was the highest-taxing government of the last 30 years, with an average tax-to-GDP ratio of 23.5 per cent.
Over its first four years — prior to introducing the GST — that rate was 22.5 per cent.
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In second place was the current Coalition government, whose average rate was 22.2 per cent (excluding the 2021-22 financial year, for which only estimates are available).
The Hawke-Keating Labor government placed third, with an average rate of 21.8 per cent over its 13 years.
Rounding out the list was the Rudd-Gillard Labor government, with a rate of 20.9 per cent.
For context, Fact Check has also considered which prime ministers were the "highest taxing", finding that four of the top five belonged to the Liberal Party.
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What the experts say
Rankings aside, Mr Coates said it was unclear whether a higher or lower tax-to-GDP ratio signified good economic management.
But he said Australians "should probably … expect tax-to-GDP to rise in future", given increasing demand for services to support Australia's ageing population, for example.
Professor Freebairn also told Fact Check that the tax-to-GDP figures in themselves revealed little about economic management, and said the question was not just how much tax was being collected but whether it was being spent effectively.
He noted that while on the one hand taxes created some economic disincentives, "if you had no taxes, you'd have no overall legal system … no defence, … [and] no money spent on equity and redistribution".