Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry has repeated his call for the scrapping of “nuisance” taxes such as those levied on insurance.

Mr Henry led a “root and branch” review of the tax system and in his 2010 final report recommended all specific taxes on insurance products, including fire services levies, should be abolished.

In a speech last week, he said the major political parties’ approach to tax reform is “nuts”.

“Remarkably, the consensus among leaders ... appears to be that tax reform should be avoided,” he said. “They want to kick the can a bit further down the road. And if tax policy can’t be ignored, then it should be approached as one might a plate of hors d’oeuvre. Bit by tiny bit. Bite by tiny nibble.

“This is nuts … there is an obvious set of tax reforms to be pursued by the next Australian government.

“First, broaden the base of the GST ... and remove taxes on insurance and other nuisance taxes. An obvious mechanism is to replace all three with a uniform, broad-based business cash flow tax, as noted in our 2010 review.”