A decade after I came from behind to win my Olympic gold medal in the pool at the Seoul 1988 Olympics, it was a chilly Winter Olympic year - not only for the athletes competing in Nagano, Japan - but also the 1998 federal election in which Prime Minister John Howard also came from behind to snatch victory in the GST race. or signup to continue reading The Coalition's position atop the podium saw the conception of a consumption tax that had been proposed for a long time by both sides of politics. On December 2, 1998, treasurer Peter Costello stood up in the House of Representatives to deliver the second reading speech of the .
Making health services GST exempt was central to the election campaign and subsequent legislation. Costello was clear about the government's intention to treat health in the tax reform. "In its tax plan, the government proposed that virtually all health, education and child-care services, charitable activities and religious services would be GST free," he told Parliament.
"On October 27 a tax consultative committee was established and charged with the task of making recommendations on the appropriate scope of four key GST-free areas - health, education, religious services and the non-commercial activities of charities. "They recommended GST-free treatment for a wide range of medical and allied health services." The new bill included GST-free status for 21 health services, including physiotherapy, dental, optometry and acupuncture as well as herbal medici.