The 'Tax Summit', now 'Tax Forum' or 'tax coffee meeting' being held by the federal government this week will achieve nothing.

The Macquarie Dictionary says a 'forum' is 'an assembly for the discussion of questions of public interest."

This Tax Forum was part of the deal Julia Gillard agreed to with Bob Brown from The Greens.

My guess is, it not really what Gillard or the Labor Party really want to do.

The big hidden problem is 'What is going to be done about the big financial issue created by Peter Costello when he was treasurer in the John Howard Liberal Government.

Some of those tax effects and their effects won't surface for another five years - And, nothing is being done about it.

The Federal Government, whoever is in power in 2013 and beyond, will have a massive finance problem, and no one is doing anything about it.

Creating new taxes is never popular, while giving income tax relief is seen to be acceptable, rarely does anybody bother to find out where we are going to pay for these reduced income tax breaks.

The fact is - The federal government needs to raise taxes to balance the books.

A proposed new 'mining tax' or 'carbon tax' has not been received with grand applause. Would a one percent increase in GST tax cause many problems?

At least with a GST tax, the user pays, and a one percent increase in GST would raise more money than a new mining tax and a carbon tax.

Whatever decisions the federal government makes most people hate paying taxes, let alone higher taxes.

If we all wanted less, expected less and demanded less, maybe our taxes could be contained better.

It’s a merry-go-round ride, the more your want, the more it's going to cost you in the end.

Somewhere along the way we will pay extra.

Only last week the Norwegian Government introduced a 'Fat Food Tax' - I wonder if this idea will be discussed at this week's forum (coffee break)?

What do you think?