The FT has reported this morning that the Australian government has announced, in the run up to a general election, the introduction of a UK style Google tax, a major clamp down on corporate tax abuse and a cut over a decade in its corporation tax rate from 30% to 25%.

No doubt this is thought a populist package. I am quite sure, based on UK experience, that there are real problems inherent in the proposals, but I want to concentrate on why these issues are thought to be populist in Australia. That is undoubtebndly due to the work of Tax Justice Network Autralia, led by Mark Zirnsak. They and he have done an extraordinary issue of putting corproate tax abuse on the Australian agenda. I salute them.