During the Henry Review lock up yesterday one of Treasurer Wayne Swan’s advisers came over to have a chat with me and Seven’s Canberra chief Mark Riley.

He pointed out what he thought were the most important issues for our viewers. After his spiel I commented that I thought they’d wimped out on making the big decisions. Where was the vision, where was the leadership.

He was a little taken aback.

Two hours later Wayne Swan came for a chat and said I had to understand it was a tough financial balancing act at the moment because tax revenues were down and he couldn’t take chances with the Federal Budget and getting it back in to surplus.

Fair enough. But my point was he commissioned the Henry Review in to our tax system and this was his chance to respond and provide the vision. Instead he simply picked out a resources super profits tax, some changes to superannuation and a cut in company tax.

Yes they are significant in their own right but they are announcements which could, and probably should, have been made in next week’s Federal Budget.

This was a time for the big picture. The announcements he made take effect way in the future (the increase in the superannuation guarantee takes until 2020) so he could have done the same thing for his tax vision from Henry. It would have given us a future blueprint now, in one hit.

There really is no excuse.

I can understand when Swan says it gets complicated and everything can be interconnected and have unexpected consequences but there were a bunch of no-brainers he could have ticked off right now.

Of the 138 recommendations in the Henry Review there are no-brainers which could make a difference and have few knock-on effects.

- Recommendation 11: a standard deduction to cover work related expenses or substantiate actual expenses.

- Rec 13: threshold for tax deductible donations be lifted from $2 to $25.

- Rec 23c: use tax file numbers to make it easier for people to keep track of their super.

- Rec 23d: build a superannuation portal where people can contact Government agencies and get information.

- Rec 75: no duty free allowance for international travellers coming here.

- Rec 79: specific taxes on insurance policies be abolished and come under GST like all other services.

- Rec 114: Treasury advice to ATO be made public.