Taking the tax pledge

DECEMBER 15, 2015: I HAVE signed a Tax Pledge demonstrating my commitment to vote against any tax increases, and I'm challenging Labor Leader Bill Shorten and his local Labor candidate to do the same while they’re both in Mackay tomorrow.I've taken this stance ahead of an orchestrated “GST Forum” being hosted by the Labor Party on Wednesday night.I didn’t go into politics to increase taxes, I went in to lower taxes, and in fact in my maiden speech I said exactly that.Labor are publicising an orchestrated event with Mr Shorten by claiming ‘George Christensen and the Liberals want to increase the GST to 15%’.Well I’m putting it on the record that I have specifically ruled this out, and I will not be voting for tax increases of any kind. I am now challenging Mr Shorten and his local Labor candidate to sign the same tax pledge. It will be available in my office for signing, or we can have it delivered to their Wednesday night forum if they get in touch and ask us to do that. (Or, if you are going to the forum, you can download it here and print it out to take with you - and ask him to sign it). Taking such an action would show they are serious about their tax stance.If they fail to sign it, well obviously we know that one of those taxes on the list is one they are going to smash the public with.The taxes referred to in the pledge include the GST, income tax, the Medicare Levy, company tax and the carbon tax. People from all sides of politics are talking about increasing the GST or other taxes to increase revenue.I think they’re asking the wrong question.It shouldn't be 'how do we raise more revenue?'The question should be ‘how do we make the tax system more efficient to enable more money to be spent in the private sector to help the economy grow and create jobs? Ultimately I’d like to see income tax cuts and company tax cuts so that Australia can prosper.We can only do that through government managing our money better.