The West Australian state election March 11 will be quite a fight. The few opinion polls suggest a handsome victory to the McGowan ALP opposition. ReachTEL has 55-45 two party preferred and Newspoll 52-48 in favour of Labor. Minor parties campaigning in the ashes of the failed Barnett government could stymie this. Greens and Socialists […]
Damien Perrottet, deputy to the new NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, is retreating from the former Baird government’s plan to sell a 35 year lease of the NSW land titles register. NSW’s conservative government is ahead in the polls – and Berejiklian appears determined to keep it that way, even if it means abandoning unpopular measures. […]
The calls for tax reform come thick and fast – like hammer blows upon the Turnbull government, on its knees praying for a recovery in public opinion. The AFR today gave Australian Institute of Company Directors CEO Elizabeth Proust the pulpit to call for an increase in the Goods and Services Tax to 15 per […]
by Philip Soos reposted from The Guardian Australia’s historically high and rising housing prices are widely debated and have prompted a number of government inquiries into housing affordability. The question stands open: is housing affordable in Australia? Affordability is often confused with related concepts such as ease of entry, serviceability and valuation. Ease of entry […]
The Western Australian election 11 March will be a furious battle, but don’t bother with the popcorn – the ALP led by Mark McGowan is set to win easily and the fireworks of One Nation will prove a damp squib. Facing certain defeat, the Liberal–National Coalition are playing hard-ball to minimise their losses. The close […]
A great way to bury an unwelcome government report is to release it into the alcoholic haze of a hot Australian Christmas. Infrastructure Australia’s Capturing Value paper is too important to suffer this fate: who pays for the infrastructure we need is a matter of first importance. Australia’s excessive reliance on labour taxes means wage-earners […]
Last month, the Productivity Commission delivered a damning assessment of Australia’s productivity performance over the last 12 years in the discussion paper Increasing Australia’s future prosperity. They asked for submissions with fresh ideas. Prosper has a few: • Attack rent seeking at its source by taxing land rents through a land value tax • Unwind […]
Australia has a problem: we can’t build roads, rail and schools as fast as population is growing with current government financing methods. Failing to keep up with our current needs – let alone investing for an uncertain future – puts the living standards of everyone at risk. We and our ancestors worked very hard to […]
The worst tax we pay is a state charge – conveyancing Stamp Duty, which makes it hard, sometimes impossible, to move across town to a better job or around the corner to a bigger or smaller home. Anyone living with modern teenagers and the elderly in a house of many steps or plentiful weeds know […]
CoreLogic’s Quarterly Review of the residential property market released yesterday brings sobering news for land holders – particularly Australia’s 1.2 million strong Negatively Geared investor class. Rents are falling. Source: CoreLogic CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless observes: “Rental incomes are falling across the combined capital cities in the midst of the weakest rental market on record. A […]
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