howard was the highest taxing govt in australia's history labor then reduced the income tax rate three times since all he did in terms of economic reform was a gst he preferred to play the social conservative while pretending that everything we have around us markets the general direction of ir taxation etc etc is a product of labor which the conservative have always tried to claim the later credit for oh and in modern times slash and burn health education social etc services to bring the budget back in to the black even though menzies never had a budget surplus i'd rather our money spent on us to support australians not held in a surplus gathering dust for no good reason it's our money