Rocky path ahead for government and country on road to reform

There will be many more of us, we will be older, we will require greater care, and there will be proportionally fewer taxpayers to fund it.

Add to that the threat of blistering heat waves, floods and other disasters from climate change, the unknown impact of artificial intelligence on the way we live and work, and the heightened risk of confrontation between countries in our region.

In the meantime, there is the little matter of soaring living costs tat need to be tamed.

It is a formidable list of challenges.

But those looking for reassuringly big government announcements in response have so far been left largely wanting.

This is nowhere more so than in the area of taxation.

The Intergenerational Report has painted a picture of a tax system that will rely increasingly heavily on a shrinking proportion of wage earners to fund all the spending that will be required to pay for health and aged care, disability support, defence and other expenses.

But so far, the government has been more focused on ruling tax changes out than embracing reforms. It has said no to income tax shifts beyond the stage three tax cuts, no to a GST increase and no to super profits taxes on banks and the like.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers insists that the government has a "huge reform agenda underway".

But, awkwardly for the government, it is incomplete.

And much of it is behind the scenes, like rejigging institutions to make them work better and overhauling skills and training to deliver a boost to productivity that might take years to realise.

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In his speech to the National Press Club, Dr Chalmers - who is a student of the Hawke and Keating governments - reminded the audience that the bold reforms undertaken by Labor in the 1980s and 1990s were built on deep foundations.

"There's this rewriting of history that sort of says Bob and Paul popped up here one day and had this whole range of difficult decisions on [their] list and everybody said, 'Oh, that sounds fair enough'," the Treasurer said.

In a plea for patience, he said the government had begun to walk down "that reform path [but] it's difficult. All these things are contested. But they're worth it and they pay off in the long term".

The challenge for the government is if it runs out of path before the reforms come to fruition.