We need to talk; about tax and how we pay for the good things in life.
All the talk about tax reform has missed a vital point, Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens argues.
"We've all voted as voters for the government to give us good things. We have not actually voted for the funding," he told the House of Representatives economics committee on Friday.
There is a gap, and Mr Stevens is worried Australia is not talking about it.
"It's not disastrous. We're not heading to hell any time soon, but there's an issue here over the medium term that still, it seems to me, we're not quite having the conversation in the country about."
Amid concerns about the possible dampening effects of income tax bracket creep on people's incentive to work, Mr Stevens said the nation's political leaders had to engage with the community about the appropriate level of tax relief average income earners could expect.
"Sooner or later we do have to have the conversation about funding the very good things we all want and I don't think we've quite had it yet."
Lower interest rates are not a recipe for sustained, strong long-run growth, which must come from innovation, risk taking and productivity, Mr Stevens said, noting he was sounding like a broken record.
Nor is a lower corporate tax a silver bullet, deputy RBA governor Philip Lowe says.
Dr Lowe said lowering corporate tax rates to match Australia's nearest competitors is not central to stimulating business activity.
"I think it would be incorrect to focus on corporate taxation as the solution here," Dr Lowe said.
"I wouldn't like to single out the corporate tax as the magic bullet here.
"There isn't a single solution. It's working across a whole range of areas to create a pro-investment climate for the economy."
Dr Lowe said the solution was getting more people to invest and governments, including Australia's, could do that by creating a pro-investment climate that focused on innovation, productivity and the incentive for people to take risk, as well as investing themselves in national infrastructure assets.
Debate about raising the GST has dominated the government's tax reform agenda, although Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this week said he was yet to be convinced it was the way to go to fund income tax cuts and lift economic growth.
Treasury is continuing to model a range of tax options ahead of the May budget.
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