The Federal Government has also come to the party on the issue of state insurance taxes, saying state taxes are “impeding efforts for insurance savings”.

Assistant Treasurer Mal Brough has used news of the new taxes to take a swipe at the state governments, all of which are held by the Australian Labor Party. He says premium taxes of up to 82% are “undermining the hard work done on tort law reform to deliver more affordable insurance cover for Australians”.

“On one hand, while state Labor governments have worked well to bring down tort reform and that is having downward pressure overall on premiums, on the other hand state Labor governments continue to charge these exorbitant taxes and taxes on taxes to our business community.”

Mr Brough says state governments can use their power to make a real difference for small business by removing “arbitrary and exorbitant fire services levies and stamp duties”.

He says this isn’t such a big ask, because governments are already receiving substantial benefits from the GST.