Latest News & Commentary
1 + 2 adds up!
These two interesting quotes assist to make the Georgist case that land prices and taxes are both problematical:- (1) Richard Cobden: “Cheated, Robbed and Bamboozled” “I warn ministers, and I warn landlords and the aristocracy of this country, against forcing on the...
Our lives are like a Hieronymus Bosch or Pieter Bruegel painting
by Dr Gavin Putland WORKERS (i) pay rent, (ii) help their employers to pay rent, and (iii) raise some of the next generation of rent-payers. LAND SPECULATORS (i) receive economic rent for the gifts of nature, (ii) take the credit for providing them, and (iii) lobby...
The fragrant vagrant is not a rose by another name
Melbourne City Council is wringing its hands again over developer land vagrancy – prime sites deliberately held vacant or with disused, dangerous buildings to assist developer lobbying of government for rezoning or advantageous building permits. The issue last hit the...
Vacancy a Sign of Systemic Failure
Prosper President Catherine Cashmore is quoted in The Age with Land Bankers raise ire of the well-heeled. “Morally it’s not a good thing to do,” she said. “But let’s not blame the investors.” She pointed the finger at government policy: “The nation has been breastfed...
The Metricon Judgement
In March last year, the NSW Supreme Court set aside the NSW Office of State Revenue’s assessment for land tax in 2009-13 on certain lands at Terranora in the Tweed Valley held by Metricon. The developer bought the $60m aggregation to subdivide for residential use. It...
The bank cartel has a new enemy
The federal Treasurer Scott Morrison used parliament yesterday to fire an extraordinary broadside at Australia’s banking cartel. Conservative governments rarely indulge in the public thrashing of such major supporters of the status quo. Morrison and the Turnbull...
Gladys can’t handle the heat – NSW fire reforms go up in flames
The NSW government is reneging on the small, high quality reform of funding emergency services with a land charge instead of the very bad levy on fire insurance. Blue-rinse dragons of Mosman saw red - they will be paying $500 a year on median land values of $1.84...
Aim for Prosperity
President Catherine Cashmore on The Shtick, explaining Prosper's tax reform agenda.
Mozambique model creates jobs and food… can this work in South Africa?
by Peter Meakin South African Constitutional Property Rights Foundation Will Minister Gigaba encourage the trafficking of South Africa's unemployed to Mozambique? Realistically, the best chance for South Africa’s 8.5 million jobless is a single bus ticket to Maputo....
Pitfalls loom for vacancy taxes
Governments make token moves in the right direction The Federal government announcement of a vacancy tax on foreign investors could be construed as pure populism. Foreign investors constitute some 11% of all residential property purchases. Barely 3% of those...
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