australian taxation is already one of the highest in the world. In order for the gov't to build affordable housing (high density or not), it would take even more tax revenue to pull off.

I for one, will not want to pay more taxes.

The free market works for food, so why not have it work for shelter? The key sticking point is zoning issues, and approvals. These decisions are made at the local (council) level, and the existing residents overwhelmingly dislike a high rise going up next to their house/backyard.

The other issue is that a large portion of real estate buyers want land ownership - ala a house. The thought of living in an apartment is at best a stopgap for them.

Therefore, the capital appreciation of an apartment is meager at best. This also causes chronic underinvestment in apartments (esp. quality ones), and exacerbates cheap, low quality shitboxes that people dont like much (and reinforces the idea that they don't want to live in an apartment in the long term).

Where did you pull that from?

Specifically i'm gonna call out income tax in australia :

Income Tax Rate 45%

Ranked in the World #17

> ... This means that Australians are paying a larger share of their wages in taxes compared with other countries.

The single figure of 45% is the highest tax bracket, which only starts at $180,000/year. Australia has a higher minimum wage than most countries, so a large proportion of the population are in minimum wage jobs. People on minimum wage here make ~$40k/year and pay around 14% tax.

Not that any of that really matters if you're talking about government spending, since the overall tax rate is what determines government income, not what any individual person is paying.