Prosper Australia

photo credit: itmpa Last week Treasury made public its Red Book – the economic advice it gives to the incoming government. In it, Treasury lays out a big, bold reform agenda.  On housing, the Red Book is scathing: “Access to adequate housing affects all Australians and is integral to a decent life. It is part [...]

photo credit: Nicholas Erwin At the moment, Victoria’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade and Country Fire Authority are funded by the Fire Services Levy, a charge added to fire insurance. But the FSL gives a free ride to uninsured property owners – they don’t pay for the level of fire cover provided. Free riders increase the cost [...]

    photo credit: Schaffner Sometimes the ignorance of experts makes my blood boil.  Why can’t they do the arithmetic, the sums plainly before them? The Victorian Transport Plan will cost $38 billion and produce benefits of $180 billion, according to a state-commissioned report by Ernst and Young.  If these numbers are right, the Plan [...]

photo credit: Cayusa   Tax reform is hard for government: losers complain loud and long, while those who will benefit are suspicious and silent. We should be angry as hell about the tax system.  It scoops up the earnings of the poor but merely nips at what the wealthy make. That’s why the Victorian Treasury [...]

photo credit: smokeshowing Consider these three points: Property developers have openly stated they are reducing the supply of property to the market in order to massage land banking profits: While some already owe more than their home is worth, the result of prices initially boosted by first home buyer grants, but which fell when the [...]

photo credit: wellurban The Brumby-Madden announcement to increase Melbourne by the equivalent size of Canberra is exasperating. 100,000 vacant sites already exist in Melbourne in areas already serviced by infrastructure (according to the recent census). The government has failed us economically. The have failed us environmentally. The have failed on inter-generational equity too The social [...]

photo credit: 3blindmice Land speculators with portfolios in Coolaroo, Cranbourne East, Caroline Springs, Nunawading and Parkville will be celebrating with their second free lunch in as many weeks. Brumby’s announcement of new train stations in these suburbs has delivered windfall gains to those speculating on future infrastructure projects. One just needs to visit Coolaroo to [...]

photo credit: Dean Terry If ever we needed any more motivation to burn the midnight oil, the Brumby government’s latest handout to the property lobby is just this. Just nine months since he handed out free lunch with the 90,000 blocks of zoned land announced in March, Brumby has now extended the 2030 boundary to [...]

Todays Age article on Land Tax Cuts Wont Bring Savings alerts all those interested in defending the communities right to a share of the free lunch land prices reflect. The next few weeks will see the property lobby step up their claims to pay less and less of the one tax their army of accountants [...]

Prosper Australia today applauded the State Government’s announcement for taking housing affordability more seriously. However, questions must be asked about who benefits most from this announcement. “Today’s declaration of residential zoning has made Victoria’s land bankers more money in a day than many earn in a lifetime.” “Questions must be asked why the government is [...]