{"id":429166,"date":"2026-01-22T04:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T04:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429166\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T04:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T04:12:10","slug":"oecd-calls-on-australia-to-raise-gst-and-increase-affordable-housing-amid-budget-deficit-australian-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429166\/","title":{"rendered":"OECD calls on Australia to raise GST and increase affordable housing amid budget deficit | Australian economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The OECD<\/a> has called on the government to broaden the GST, do more to reduce greenhouse emissions and adopt ambitious social housing targets as part of its annual economic survey of Australia.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Jim Chalmers\u2019 fifth federal budget in May, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said Australia\u2019s economy was \u201cnow normalising\u201d, after struggling through a lengthy period of weak growth following the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Interest rate cuts and a rebound in households\u2019 real disposable incomes would drive average economic growth up to \u201ca little more than 2% over the coming years\u201d, it said in the report.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut longstanding challenges of slower productivity growth, high housing costs and high carbon emissions need to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The OECD called out the damage from Australia\u2019s increasingly unaffordable housing<\/a> market and backed federal and state-level efforts to boost home supply by easing land restrictions and increasing density.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing shortages lead to overcrowding and financial strain, reduce labour mobility, worsen intergenerational equity and increase congestion as people travel large distances to work,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

The organisation also advocated in the report for replacing state-based property stamp duties with a land tax, raising the target for social housing and increasing public funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial housing accounts for about 4% of the housing stock in Australia, down from 6% in 1990 and only about half the OECD average,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The Paris-based organisation, sometimes referred to as the \u201cclub of rich nations\u201d, is a bastion of economic orthodoxy and is led by Australia\u2019s former finance minister, former Liberal senator Mathias Cormann.<\/p>\n

December\u2019s mid-year budget<\/a> update confirmed that the nation\u2019s finances remain mired in deficits over the coming decade.<\/p>\n

In its report, the OECD urged the Albanese government to do more to put the budget on a more sustainable footing, calling for \u201cexpenditure restraint and revenue enhancing tax reforms\u201d.<\/p>\n

Among those tax reform measures were a longstanding recommendation to broaden the GST<\/a> and to consider lifting the rate above 10%, with the proceeds used to reduce Australia\u2019s overreliance on personal income tax.<\/p>\n

The OECD estimated this tax reform would add 1.6% to the size of the economy in a decade\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

It also said Australia was \u201cbroadly on track\u201d to meet its 2030 emissions reduction ambitions, but that \u201cfurther efforts will be needed to reduce transport emissions, manage a higher share of renewables in transport and tackle agricultural emissions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia was for many years an international laggard on climate action and still has among the highest per capita carbon emissions of any country in the world and among the lowest implicit prices of carbon,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent years, however, Australia has made relatively rapid progress on the energy transition, with a growing proportion of climate policy instruments adopted in most areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report advocated for a \u201cgradual\u201d lift in petrol taxes, which it said were \u201cwell below European levels\u201d, which was \u201ccontributing to the low take-up of low emission vehicles\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The OECD has called on the government to broaden the GST, do more to reduce greenhouse emissions and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-429166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}