Prime Minister Tony Abbott rules out raising taxes to pay for $500 million a year Iraq deployment against Islamic State

Updated

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has ruled out asking Australians to pay more tax to pay for the nation's military commitment in Iraq.

Australian fighter jets have begun flying combat missions as part of the international effort to fight Islamic State (IS) insurgents.

The Government has estimated the contribution - of up to 10 aircraft and 600 personnel - will cost $500 million a year.

Last week, Treasurer Joe Hockey said new budget cuts would have to be found to cover the cost of the military campaign and $630 million in additional funding for security agencies.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Sunday appeared to leave open the possibility of increasing taxes to cover the added pressure on the budget.

But the idea has been killed off this morning by Mr Abbott.

When asked if he could rule out a "war tax", the Prime Minister responded, "yes, I can".

"This is a government which believes in lower taxes, not higher taxes," he said.

"We will pay what we must to do our duty by our country and by the wider world.

"Just at the moment national security and international security are indivisible.

"We think we can afford it - but obviously we are in the business of getting the budget back under control and that's something that the Treasurer, the Finance Minister and myself wrestle with every day."

He said it was important to keep the $500 million cost "in perspective".

"That's a significant amount of money but, in the budget of something like $400 billion a year, we can manage these things," he said.

"I do not want to underestimate the budgetary challenge that we are facing but I do think that you should see the costs of this commitment in perspective and they are manageable."

Greens leader Christine Milne warned more budget cuts for the vulnerable are likely.

"Tony Abbott doesn't have a magic pudding and if he is saying there will be no tax hikes for the big end of town who are evading tax, then the only option is further cuts putting more pressure on the sick, the unemployed, our universities," she said.

Federal Cabinet, which is meeting today in Canberra, is also considering a response from the Iraqi government over the legal framework to support special forces missions in Iraq.

Australia has 200 special forces soldiers on standby ready to support Iraqi forces but Mr Abbott said he could not say when they would join the war.

"I'm not going to put a time limit on it," he said.

"Our special forces are ready to go. We just await the finalisation of the legal documents."

Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, budget, defence-and-national-security, unrest-conflict-and-war, australia, iraq

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