Prosper Australia

Letter rejected by the Age (Melbourne) As the Federal Government is planning an emissions trading scheme — not a carbon tax — why will households foot the bill? (“Householders to bear brunt of trading scheme”, the Age, June 25.) Answer: An emissions trading scheme is a carbon tax payable not to the government, but to [...]

Manningham Leader Dear Sir, I am appalled at the ignorance displayed by the councilors and ratepayers alike reported in the Manningham Leader with respect to the rating system in connection with the differential rates to be applied to vacant land. Differential rates are wrong because they are arbitrary and unnecessary if the correct rating base, [...]

Dear Editor, Re: BCA: 56 taxes a company curse (The Age “Business Day” 10/4/07) We hear low overseas wages given as the reason our manufacturers cannot compete with Chinese imports, but we don’t hear of the penalizing effect of the multitude of taxes on our manufacturers. It would be surprising if Chinese manufacturers were similarly [...]

By Karl Fitzgerald Crikey If we are all borne onto this planet as equals, why are some subsidised to own the planet at the expense of others? Don’t we all deserve a roof over our heads? The right to participate in the Great Australian Dream? This is what Gen X, Y (& soon Z) are [...]

The Mercury House prices have pushed us into the top 20 of unaffordable cities in the world. After seven years of boom, the legacy of this government, elected by ordinary working people, will be a city owned by the elites. It need not be so. House building is a competitive industry, and with proper foresight [...]

The Australian Mr Michael Janda’s advocacy of land value taxation as a means of lowering the tax burden on both workers and entrepreneurs is well advised. As Adam Smith recognized, there are only three factors of production – land, labour and capital – and only one of them does not flee or stop working or [...]

Crikey Re. “The crisis in our housing markets” (yesterday, item 2). David Imber is right to point to the self-seeking publicity from the real estate industry. I’d like to add that the emotional term “home” and the more neutral one “house” disguise the fact that the largest component in domestic property prices is often the [...]

Canberra Times The ACT Opposition would have us believe that land tax reduces the supply of rental housing. How so? The tax is on the land, not the housing. The land can’t run away to escape the tax. The owners can’t escape the tax except by selling the land, and the resulting pressure to sell [...]

The Age Dear editor, Alan Moran (The Age, August 3, “Land-based wealth an illusion”) has it partially right. He correctly claims that inflationary pressures provide the impetus for interest rate pressures. He also correctly claims that there is a disparity between supposed wealth levels and savings levels, most of which is due to a monstrously [...]

Herald Sun 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 [...]