Fightback! was a radical economic policy package proposed by John Hewson, then leader of Australia's Liberal Party, in November 1991. It ran to 650 pages. For the English soldier and regicide, see John Hewson (regicide). ... Liberal Party is the name of dozens of political parties around the world. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ...

Key Elements

The key elements of Fightback! were:

• Radical changes to industrial relations, including the abolition of awards and the elimination of automatic entitlements to unemployment benefits after nine months on the dole; [1]
• Radical changes to Medicare, including "abolition of bulk-billing except for veterans, war widows, pensioners, health card holders and the disabled" and "provision of gap insurance for medical bills". [2]
• The introduction of a goods and services tax (GST) at a 15% rate;
• A $13 billion dollar personal income tax cut, directed largely at the middle and upper-middle classes;
• A $10 billion cut in government expenditure partially offset by increasing other areas, including $3.6 billion in selected government programs on social welfare;
• The abolition of State payroll taxes and substantial cuts in petrol excise duty and proposed schemes for savings;
• The sale of a number of government-owned businesses. [3]

After a negative reception to the Fightback policies, Dr Hewson reconsidered Fightback! and relaunched it in December 1992. The major changes were to remove the goods and services tax on food and child care through zero rating and provision for a Rebuild Australia fund for new public works. Changes to Medicare, the $10 billion dollar cut in government expenditure and Jobsback package of labour market reforms remained unchanged. [4] Medicare is Australias publicly-funded universal health care system, operated by the government authority Medicare Australia. ... The Goods and Services Tax is a Value-added tax that exists in a number of countries. ...

Following the Liberal Party's loss at the 1993 federal election, in April 1994 Dr Hewson declared the Fightback! policy to be 'Dead and Buried'. [5] Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 March 1993. ...

Many of the proposals were however ultimately adopted in some form over the period of the Howard Government. John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian politician and the 25th Prime Minister of Australia. ...

External Links

• John Harrison, The GST Debate - A Chronology, Australian Parliamentary Library, Economics, Commerce and Industrial Relations Group, Background Paper 1 1997-98, 22 September 1997.
• John Quiggin, Fightback and One Nation: A comparative analysis, Australian Tax Forum 9(2), 127­54, 1992.
• John Quiggin, Fightback without the Food Tax], Australian Financial Review, 12 December, 1992.
• Peter Boyle, Hewson is a health hazard, Green Left Weekly, 24 February 1993
• Steve Painter, What the Liberals would do to our lives, Green Left Weekly, 3 March 1993.