Prosper Australia

photo credit: Catherinette Rings Steampunk Letter to the Editor – AFR 26/08/2010 Gavin R. Putland, Melbourne The High Court of Australia’s decision to strike down the Cadia copper royalties — on the ground that the NSW Government didn’t own the copper — is a vindication of Treasury secretary Ken Henry’s proposal for a federal resource [...]

Prof. Ross Garnaut gave the Hamer Oration at Melbourne University on Thursday. He pointed out that Australia has not experienced a recession for 17 years, a record for The Lucky Country. Such a period of unbroken growth is not just an Australian record, it is a world record. But one-way tickets have built-in risks for [...]

photo credit: ob1left Australia’s tax system protects foreign producers against their Australian competitors, writes Gavin R. Putland in this LVRG article. The Resource Super Profits Tax (RSPT) was sunk by the advertising firepower of the big miners, ostensibly because it would make Australian mineral deposits less competitive with foreign alternatives. The complex, bureaucratic, maximally-interventionist Carbon [...]

photo credit: Dru!   A survey of property investors in The Age today by Colemar Brunton shows sentiment delicately poised between those who see the market flat or falling and those anticipating further rises. This is not the bursting of The Great Australian Property Bubble that Prosper and many other commentators like Jeremy Grantham and [...]

When You've Paid Your Rent, You've Paid Your Way View more presentations from Prosper. Following Gavin’s recent presentation, we thought those of you who missed it might find this of interest. Flick through the 6 slides according to the audio below. Our premises is based in the Hardware Lane cafe precinct. Enjoy the background jazz. [...]

photo credit: karola riegler photography Thursday June 24th 7pm, 1/27 Hardware Lane Dr Gavin Putland The powerpoint and audio have been uploaded here Australia’s residential land prices, commonly but incorrectly conflated with “house” prices, started falling in 2008. Having seen what falling “house” prices did to the financial systems of other countries, the Federal Government [...]

photo credit: 10b travelling   Clear-eyed media commentary in the national interest is rare and sweet. Alan Mitchell’s analysis of the Henry Tax Review in the Australian Financial Review -  A tax on all your economic rents  – is such a creature. He opens with a broadside at entrenched interests pretending the changes will affect the economy: [...]

photo credit: Troy McClure SF Gavin R. Putland Published in today’s Crikey In contrast to the Henry report’s advice that payroll tax be eventually abolished (recommendations 55 and 57), the Rudd government has decided to increase its own payroll tax. No, really. Australia’s federally mandated, employer-funded 9% superannuation contribution is equivalent in every way to [...]

photo credit: Praveen M Tomy Fans of Gavin Putland’s work will have read today’s piece on Housing Market Tipped to Weaken as Buyers Retreat. High auction clearance rates and record prices notwithstanding, official figures show the number of loans to buy houses in Victoria slipped from a record high of 15,300 in September to 13,400 [...]

photo credit: Don Solo Gavin Putland Check Dr Putland’s latest piece on interstate issues with CIV Question: Who will be the big winners if CIV rating is introduced in the City of Monash? Answer: Owners of vacant lots and derelict buildings. The site value (SV) is the value of the land alone. The capital-improved value [...]