We may demand national action on a disability support scheme but we will beat our breasts if it requires more of our money.

Governments are now afraid to even mention the word unless it is accompanied by the word "cut". Fuel tax, a GST rate increase, higher fees and charges or even higher power prices, are all loaded into the much-loathed realm of tax.

Spurred on by the resources boom and China's dramatic leap in prosperity, the Howard government cut income tax over successive years, while paying down government debt by almost $100 million to zero by 2007.

Prime Minister John Howard's ill-fated push for another term in 2007 was underpinned by a pledge for another round of massive tax cuts.

Just three weeks ahead of the Western Australian by-election in the seat of Canning, which the Coalition must win to protect Prime Minister Tony Abbott's future, the government has flagged more tax cuts, this time to counter bracket creep.

This is when higher wages push incomes into high tax brackets, thereby eroding any gains from a wage increase.

Treasurer Joe Hockey has flagged broadening the base of the GST to areas such as health care, in order to remove the scourge of bracket creep. At the same time he wants to bring the budget back to surplus, which almost certainly means more spending cuts.

Mr Hockey's intentions may be laudable, but they may be seen as a political ploy with the crucial Canning by-election in mind. As well, the government now lacks authority, and the goodwill of independent senators, to realistically say it can get taxation measures through Parliament.

The Opposition regards the tax talk as illusory and politically motivated. Either way the government will lose even more credibility, if voters decide another thought bubble just popped.