Latest News & Commentary
Victorian local government to ban site value rating?
Local Government Rating Review submission The two most thoroughgoing inquiries into Australian municipal rating have proven to be:- 1) the 1965-1967 NSW Royal Commission on Local Government Finance and Land Valuation, under Justice Rae Else-Mitchell, and 2) ...
Prosper’s Victorian Budget submission
Prosper Australia welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the 2018- 2019 Victorian budget. This submission focuses on the role of State Land Tax (SLT) in the design of an effective policy response to the housing affordability crisis. Prosper welcomes the Victorian...
Why universal basic income will fail
By Akhil Patel It has become popular to suggest a Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a solution to growing inequity. But in its current form UBI will be a total failure. Not because the idea is a bad one, but because it ignores the law of economic rent. The idea of a UBI...
America’s Tollbooth Future?
The Trump administration has promoted the need to harness the windfall gains property owners enjoy when infrastructure is built in close proximity. The Legislative Outline for Rebuilding Infrastructure in America includes the following section: C. Transit 1. Require...
Packer’s paradise: another land grab
James Packer has teamed up with Robert de Niro to push an exclusive resort on the paradise island of Barbuda (Antigua). Our interviewee is Barbudan Teckla C Negga Melchior, who tells the story from the perspective of an anthropologist with a strong understanding of...
HomesVic: An equity share of a broken housing market
Like most 30 somethings with a substantial HECS debt and an addiction to avocado on toast, I am an aspiring first home buyer. I’d love to buy the home I currently rent: a daggy 1960’s ‘six-pack’ flat on a main road in Footscray. It’s currently valued around $360,000....
Prosper’s 2018-19 Federal Prebudget submission
The debate over tax policy in Australia has reached fairly mediocre levels. The best the Federal Government can muster is a company tax cut, which they intend to by stealth replace with income tax via bracket creep. Meanwhile the natural bounty of land is ever...
OECD tries to do the impossible
3 January 2018 International Co-operation and Tax Administration Division OECD/CTPA Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Circumvention of Common Reporting Standards (CRS) May I respectfully suggest that the OECD has set itself an impossible task in...
ABC Fact Checker on Renegades
Ben Phillips (ANU), one of Australia's leading econometricians, joined the Renegade Economists radio show last week to discuss his report Regional Housing Supply & Demand. The report held a critical lense up to the ubiquitous supply side argument. Is it really the...
Does taxing investors drive up the rent?
The Productivity Commission’s recent five year review, “Shifting the Dial”, brings the welcome recommendation of a shift from stamp duties to a broad-based land tax. Stamp duty is a dud tax from the economist’s point of view; it doesn’t achieve an obvious...
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