Dr Parkinson said on Wednesday night that taxes such as the goods and services tax and fuel excise would have to be boosted or broadened if the budget was to have any hope of returning to surplus.

He said the alternative of letting inflation push Australians into higher tax brackets was “unlikely to be politically feasible” and would not raise enough to bring a surplus in sight.

Addressing the American Chamber of Commerce in Brisbane on Thursday, Mr Stevens said: “Put simply, there are things we want to do as a society, and have voted for, that are not fully funded by taxes over the medium term, as is starting to become clear in the lead up to the May budget.

“Here I refer to the very important speech given last evening by my colleague, Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson. Our situation is not dire by the standards of other countries but neither are the issues trivial. A conversation needs to be had.”

A spokeswoman for Treasurer Joe Hockey said the Treasury secretary’s views about the GST were his own.

“We are not changing the GST – full stop, end of story,” she said. “Our position hasn’t changed.”

Mr Stevens told the Brisbane audience that too often governments wrote off good ideas too quickly.

“There is something of a tendency for governments, when asked to outline their growth plans, to list the things that they already want to do for political reasons, and then to claim that they will help growth,” he said.

“Some of those things may well help growth, but in fact many of the things that are needed to spur growth seem not to make it onto such lists.

"Things that boost competition in markets, that genuinely free up trade, that reform the governance and financing of infrastructure projects, that put retirement income streams on a sustainable footing... and that minimise distortions from tax – many of these often don’t make onto ‘to do lists’ in the way that perhaps they should.

“These issues are very real ones for Australia. For we face considerable challenges.”

The Coalition has promised to prepare a tax white paper within its first term of office.

It has ruled out changing the GST in its first term.