This year’s federal budget has been the most controversial since the Abbott government’s 2014 budget, with Labor struggling to sell its new capital gains tax changes and crackdown on trusts.
今年的联邦预算是自阿博特政府2014年预算以来争议最大的一次，工党在推销其新的资本利得税变更及对信托基金的打击措施时举步维艰。
Its changes have produced howls of outage from those potentially affected, and criticism from some experts.
这些变革引发了潜在受影响者的愤怒抗议（howls of outrage），以及部分专家的批评。
But there have been notable supporters of the changes. Those in favour find some echoes of past tax reform from the Hawke-Keating and Howard-Costello years.
但变革也获得了显著的支持者。支持者们在其中听到了霍克-基廷时代以及霍华德-科斯特洛时代过往税改的回响。
We’re joined on today’s podcast by Graeme Samuel, the former head of the national competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. He’s a long-time participant in and observer of economic reform, including helping, as the head of a business group, usher in the goods and services tax (GST) back in the 1990s under the Howard Coalition government.
今天播客的嘉宾是格雷姆·塞缪尔，前澳大利亚竞争与消费者委员会（ACCC，国家竞争监管机构）主席。他是经济改革的长期参与者和观察者，包括在20世纪90年代霍华德联合政府执政期间，作为商业团体负责人协助引入了商品和服务税（GST）。
Samuel says the latest budget’s reforms “are actually quite mild” compared to how much Australia was transformed in the 1980s and 1990s.
塞缪尔表示，与20世纪80和90年代澳大利亚经历的剧烈转型相比，最新预算的改革“实际上相当温和”。
What Treasurer [Jim] Chalmers has done here is to try and remove the distortions that have been built into the [tax] system through successive governments – I have to say primarily Coalition governments – which have feather-bedded, if you like, those that have got vested interests.
财政部长吉姆·查默斯在此所做的是试图消除通过历届政府——我必须说主要是联合政府——逐步植入税收体系的扭曲现象。可以说，这些政府为拥有既得利益者提供了“羽绒垫”般的呵护（即过度保护）。
For example, in investing in capital and taking capital gains at an extraordinarily generous 50% discount rate.
例如，在资本投资及获取资本利得时，享受着极其慷慨的50%税率折扣。
Samuel says the fierce criticism of the Labor changes shows why politicians have been scared of real reform for too long.
塞缪尔表示，对工党变革的激烈批评揭示了为何政客们长期畏惧真正的改革。
For decades now, we have asked, urged, exhorted, pleaded with our politicians to bring about tax reform. So Treasurer Chalmers does it in this budget – and look at the hue and cry and the cries of woe and doomsday that have flowed.
数十年来，我们请求、敦促、劝诫、恳求政客们推行税改。如今查默斯财政部长在预算中付诸实施——看看随之而来的喧嚣抗议、悲叹之声以及末日般的预言吧。
The problem with tax reform is that it’s very complex. It’s very complex indeed.
税改的问题在于它非常复杂。确实非常复杂。
And probably the best economist that’s been able to explain it in all this has been Saul Eslake. And he puts it […] very, very simply: why should wage earners pay more, bear a greater share of the burden, for the provision of our hospitals, our schools, our police force, and our defence, than those who have got the benefits of capital gains, tax concessions, and the use of trusts?
在这场争论中，可能最擅长解释这一点的经济学家是索尔·埃斯莱克。他用极其简单的方式阐述道：为什么工资收入者要为医院、学校、警察力量和国防的提供支付更多、承担更大的负担，而拥有资本利得、税收优惠和信托基金利益的人却不用？
Samuel says some media outlets had given people with “vested interests” against the budget too much uncritical coverage.
塞缪尔表示，部分媒体对反对预算的“既得利益者”给予了过多不加批判的报道。
They’re ably assisted, unfortunately, by sections of our traditional media. And we know who they are at present. As you read the traditional media, particularly the financial press and The Australian, you don’t actually have to read the articles. You look at the byline, you know immediately what’s going to be said. It is quite extraordinary.
不幸的是，他们得到了传统媒体部分势力的有力协助。我们知道他们是谁。当你阅读传统媒体，特别是财经媒体和《澳大利亚人报》时，你实际上不必读文章内容。只需看一眼署名（byline），你就立刻知道他们会说什么。这简直不可思议。
It reminded him of the “end of the world” claims he heard back more than two decades ago, when he was the National Competition Council’s president and helping the Howard government introduce the GST.
这让他想起了二十多年前，当他担任国家竞争委员会主席并协助霍华德政府引入GST时，所听到的“世界末日”般的论调。
When we did that, there were esteemed (or self-esteemed) economists who said that this was going to be the end of the world, that what it will do is to bring in rampant inflation. And small businesses will fail, like a tsunami had hit them. It didn’t happen. Didn’t happen. We’ve got the GST today.
当时，一些受人尊敬（或自认为受人尊敬）的经济学家声称这将是世界末日，会带来猖獗的通货膨胀，小企业将像遭遇海啸般倒闭。但这一切并未发生。没有发生。我们今天依然拥有GST。
On supermarket competition The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has taken legal action against supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles. Last month, the consumer watchdog had a win when a court found Coles had misled shoppers with its “Down Down” discounts.
关于超市竞争 澳大利亚竞争与消费者委员会（ACCC）已对超市巨头伍尔沃斯（Woolworths）和科尔斯（Coles）采取法律行动。上个月，当法院裁定科尔斯通过“降降”折扣误导消费者时，这一消费者监管机构取得了一项胜诉。
Asked about the supermarkets’ public reputation, he agreed they’ve “copped a reputation battering” – but argued some of that has been unfair.
当被问及超市的公众声誉时，他同意它们遭受了“声誉打击”（copped a reputation battering）——但他辩称其中有些是不公平的。