The City of Moreland’s recent decision to quadruple rates on vacant land (as seen in the Sunday Age’s Anger grows over City Bombsites (29/04/06) must have assisted in the decision to sell the huge Kodak factory site in Coburg (p22 The Age 1/07/06), which had been vacant since 2004.
Dear Ms. Freegard,
I read with interest your report on May 26 (”Push to ease land tax pain”) in the Herald Sun.
As of course you would be aware, there is always two sides to every story, and the Property Council of Australia is an organisation which benefits from higher land prices.
As an alternative, may I interest you in the following pre-budget press release from Prosper Australia.
Please feel free to contact me for further discussion concerning this issue.
Kind regards,
Lev Lafayette
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Land Tax Changes “Shameful”
Proposed cuts to Victoria’s land taxes will be vigorously opposed by an economics lobby group who plan to target both the government and opposition in marginal seats on the issue.
Spokesperson for Prosper Australia, Mr. Lev Lafayette, said it was “gross negligence” to continue to tax productive activity and investment whilst encouraging speculation in holding resources.
“Economists from around the world are almost unanimous that it is much better to derive public revenue from site rental value rather than labour or capital investment”, Mr. Lafayette said.
“However Victorian politicians ignore this advice and the accumulated evidence in favour of preying on the ignorance of the electorate whilst accepting donations by organisations that have a vested interest in high land prices and reduced home affordability.”
The Property Council of Australia is once such organisation that has advocated reducing land taxes. Unlike other taxes which increase the price of a good or service, land tax would reduce the price of land as it is in fixed supply and available ‘by nature’.
In 2003/04 the Property Council of Australia donated $7,500 to the Australian Labor Party and in 2002/03 they donated $6,000 to the Liberal Party.
“Both John Brumby and Ted Baillieu ought to be ashamed of themselves”, Mr. Lafayette concluded. “Public leaders ought to act in the best interests of the state; not for short-term political gain”.
Prosper Australia will be holding public meetings across Melbourne in the lead-up to the State election and will be inviting politicians who support tax relief for working people and good investors.
Contact: Lev Lafayette,
Prosper Australia
03 9670 2754
media@prosper.org.au
Our Hardware Lane premises have received a number of new books recently including:
Friends are encouraged to visit our extensive library where Geonomics Newsletters such as “The Geonomist” & “Groundswell” are available to borrow. We also have periodical magazines such as Adbusters, the New Internationalist & the Economic Reform Australia newsletter on show.
Over 12 talks and 450 plus people heard Alanna’s core message –
“We all have an equal right and a birth right to the Earth. The earth has a biological & ecological right to its future too. We are promoting a new form of property rights where what you build with your own hands, what you labour for, is your private property. You shouldn’t be taxed for something productive you are doing. What we are saying is that the gifts of nature, the land & natural resources of the earth belong to we the people. We all deserve a fair share of the profits from these natural gifts. This is a natural form of public finance policy”
Alanna was kind enough to leave a few of her keynote presentations for us to digest:
Such a direct description of this system saw Alanna give presentations to Australian Greens leader Bob Brown and the Victorian Greens State Convention. Radio interviews took place on the ABC, 3CR and RRR’s Long Grass Sessions.
Visiting Hobart’s Female Factory in ‘the Valley of Death’ (as it was once known), Alanna was shocked to read of the hardships of women sent to Australia for stealing food. She soon joined the dots. “They didn’t tell the real story, they keep suppressing the real issue, the enclosure of the commons, that’s what led to the petty crime”. Back in the days of the commons, poor or unemployed people could always find something productive to do by ‘working the commons’ by planting their own crop or grazing their herd on the unused (typically the least valuable) land. From these ‘common’ lands enough could be earned to barter with others so that a basic existence could be maintained. Sounds like a human right, yeah?”
Asked about the chances for change in today’s conservative environment, Alanna pointed out “look, imagine when there was slavery, did they ever think they’d get out of it? I mean people were actually saying that slave-holders should be compensated for giving up this ‘right’!!! Strong people said NO, there must be justice and we must move beyond this.
Look at women’s suffrage. Women were whipped in jails over raising questions about the right to vote These women must have thought they were in a hopeless position during the depths of those dark nights in jail. But in time they got this policy through, though it’s still not universal.
Now in time people will see that an Earth Rights Democracy is the way for true freedom, a true democracy. Do you think the creator planned for life to be this difficult, for some to get free rides and others to be taxed for all their hard work? For the earth to be easy pickings and polluted at the same time?
“Now you’re not going to fully get this in a one hour lecture, ’cause you all know how hard it is to look outside the square, especially when we’re conditioned to consider things from a capital versus labour analysis, but be patient. As a young woman I too was concerned with poverty, disease and the indigenous. With this new perspective hopefully now embedded in your outlook, you will see how much of a pivotal issue this is.”
Make sure you email us to sign up for a trial subscription to our Progress Magazine to continue your understanding of this outrageous concept - “Pay for what you take, not what you make”.
Alanna Hartzok is a Co-leader of the Earth Rights Institute and a UN NGO representative. She has worked extensively with the UN HABITAT on local funding issues and has a long list of public speaking engagements including the World Urban Forum, US Institute for Ecological Economics Conference, and the Eastern Economics Association Conference (NY).
Lecturer, legislative reformer and grass roots activist Alanna Hartzok’s vast array of interests sees her moving between villages in Nigeria to the halls of power at the UN. Her central focus is that with greater insight we can orchestrate a tax shift policy that addresses major local and global problems.
Alanna hopes to help show “that there is an alternative economic paradigm which addresses the dis-functions of the current system, rather than simply the symptoms, an approach that is both more efficient and more equitable than the current one. People working for justice need to understand what we mean by the land problem and its place within an ethical and human rights framework.”
In her 2001 E.F. Schumacher Lecture she said “The needs of the people and the needs of the planet are one and the same: protection, care, validation, respect, appreciation, creative expression. Thus, the ethics of the Next Economy will flow out of a profound perception that the rights of human beings and the rights of the planet are one and the same. The Next Economy will be founded on ethics so simple and basic that thoughtful human beings will say, “Yes, this is true.” The force of truth is a liberating force, always has been and always will be. Mahatma Gandhi knew and taught this. Gandhi lived according to sattyagraha, the truth force.”
From 1993 until 1998 she was involved in a very tough political campaign to bring in legislation which made taxes more efficient and fair in her native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She learnt first hand that to change land laws much education of lawmakers is necessary along with an enormous amount of patience and resilience.
However Alanna does more than give lectures and talk to politicians. She is actively involved in bringing about peace and prosperity. This is seen with her involvement with the building of an Eco Village Living and Learning Centre in Odi, Nigeria. This is a region continually in conflict over oil rents, and Alanna and her Team are developing connections in Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta, working to develop a Resource Trust similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund.
While in Australia Alanna will address many diverse groups whose interests range from democracy to infrastructure funding, the green tax shift and peace. Upon hearing Alanna’s message you will gain a new policy outlook for which many of the world’s problems would be simplified if only the policy makers respected fundamental economic laws.