This course is an introduction to tax policy making in Australia. The emphasis is on economic models. It covers relevant aspects of public finance and welfare economics. It examines choices between the public and private provision of goods, issues of fiscal federalism, constitutional constraints on the division of taxing powers and an evaluation of modes of decision making. A critical understanding of major issues is injected. This covers the justification for the public sector, the financing of the public sector, mainly by taxation, the consequences for the economy at the micro and macro levels arising from taxation and some specific tax reform issues.