AUSTRALIA'S OPPOSITION FACES SETBACK ON TAX PLAN
The conservative opposition, already
fighting an uphill election battle, now faces controversy in
its own ranks over a possible error in its major tax cutting
program, economists said.
    Professor Michael Porter, architect of the tax plan,
declined to refute Treasurer Paul Keating's charge that the
opposition miscalculated tax and expenditure cuts by several
billion dollars. Economists said the opposition, trailing
behind Labour in opinion polls, would find its chances further
diminished if its tax policy was a miscalculation.
    The tax plan, unveiled by opposition leader John Howard
last week, is the cornerstone of the Liberal Party's economic
strategy to oust the Labour Party in the July 11 poll.
    Keating has said the Howard tax plan would sharply increase
the budget deficit to more than nine billion dlrs and severely
damage Australia's economy, already overburdened with balance
of payments and foreign debt problems.
    In his mini-budget on May 13, Keating said the budget
deficit for the year ending June 1988 would be between two and
three billion dlrs.
    Porter, a key member of the opposition economic think tank,
said he played a leading role in formulating the tax plan but
not Howard's proposed expenditure savings, which Keating
claimed were distorted through double counting.
    Some opposition members said there appeared to be errors,
but a Liberal Party spokesman refused comment, saying the
package was being reexamined.
    "The whole thing is so deceitful," Prime Minister Bob Hawke
said in a radio interview. "Howard has made a mess of it. If
they can't govern themselves, how can they expect to govern the
country?"
    Hawke, who is seeking a third term, said the opposition had
made the election one of the easiest for him.
    "I've never felt more physically and mentally relaxed
(during an election). We've no problems at all," he said.
    The latest public opinion poll, published in the Melbourne
Sun newspaper, showed Labour was leading the opposition by 12
points, indicating a 66-seat majority for Hawke in parliament.
    The Election Commission announced last night that 613
candidates would contest the 148-seat House of Representatives,
while 255 candidates would fight for the 76 Senate seats.
 REUTER
