Thousands of never-before-seen cabinet papers detailing 226 decisions made by the Australian government in 1998 and 1999 have been released today [[Jan 1]] by the National Archives.
The bundles of documents reveal the Goods and Services tax, the republic referendum and the push for East Timor's independence dominated the Howard government’s second term in office.
As the world watched Vladimir Putin become Russia’s Acting President and US President Bill Clinton’s impeachment – and acquittal – Australian politics was dominated by debate about the government’s controversial Goods and Services Tax.
The coalition took its plan for tax reform to the 1998 election – and narrowly won – despite Prime Minister John Howard promising that the coalition would “never ever” introduce a G-S-T.
Two decades on, the former Treasurer says those two words were the biggest hurdle the coalition faced in implementing the largest tax reforms in Australian history.
Peter Costello concedes voters – and his own cabinet colleagues – needed convincing.
Reams of documents released today by the National Archives show the Treasurer led nine marathon cabinet meetings in four weeks – successfully convincing the government to approve 26 pages of decisions enabling wholesale tax reform.
