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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The land supply equation in Australia – flashing red danger signals for years – has finally come to the attention of federal Treasurer Scott Morrison, who is charged with the task of advancing national prosperity. He may even be prompted into action. Notoriously well-connected Alan Mitchell is out today in the AFR with the latest […]
The Victorian Treasurer yesterday dismissed belly-aching by holders of valuable parcels whose private joy over the strong rises in land prices comes with a sting – their State Land Tax went up too. ‘‘The government is not considering reducing land tax rates in response to a cyclical upturn in land values,’’ Mr Pallas told the […]
by Warwick Smith Warwick Smith smells a rat in Scomo’s sudden solution to housing affordability – planning reform – coming just ten days after developers’ call for same. SCOTT MORRISON has suddenly announced that he cares about housing affordability. This is interesting given his strident opposition to getting rid of negative gearing and the concessional […]
NSW Finance Minister Dominic Perrottet floated the idea of exchanging Stamp Duty for State Land Tax in The Australian yesterday. We warmly welcomed his initiative and explained some of the big benefits this offered NSW. By 5.30pm yesterday, Philip Coorey had the Premier’s rebuttal up in the AFR, saying he had no intention of making […]
A prize awaits the first state Premier with the political capital and farsightedness to exchange Stamp Duty for State Land Tax. The move would be a magnet for economic activity. As economists repeat ad nauseum, it is all on the margin. Fresh investment – the Premiers’ Elixir – goes where it is most welcome and […]
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