Latest News & Commentary
The WA Barnett government will be destroyed – who benefits?
The West Australian state election March 11 will be quite a fight. The few opinion polls suggest a handsome victory to the McGowan ALP opposition. ReachTEL has 55-45 two party preferred and Newspoll 52-48 in favour of Labor. Minor parties campaigning in the ashes of...
Does Berejiklian want to play Monopoly? Does Perrottet?
Damien Perrottet, deputy to the new NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, is retreating from the former Baird government’s plan to sell a 35 year lease of the NSW land titles register. NSW’s conservative government is ahead in the polls – and Berejiklian appears determined...
Proust wants a 15% GST hike = Eat the Poor.
The calls for tax reform come thick and fast – like hammer blows upon the Turnbull government, on its knees praying for a recovery in public opinion. The AFR today gave Australian Institute of Company Directors CEO Elizabeth Proust the pulpit to call for an increase...
Housing affordability and the changing debt burden of a typical mortgage
by Philip Soos reposted from The Guardian Australia’s historically high and rising housing prices are widely debated and have prompted a number of government inquiries into housing affordability. The question stands open: is housing affordable in Australia?...
Redirecting Royalties to the Rural Rump – The Nationals go vote-harvesting
The Western Australian election 11 March will be a furious battle, but don’t bother with the popcorn – the ALP led by Mark McGowan is set to win easily and the fireworks of One Nation will prove a damp squib. Facing certain defeat, the Liberal–National Coalition are...
Building bridges to ourselves: Infrastructure Australia’s Value Capture initiative
A great way to bury an unwelcome government report is to release it into the alcoholic haze of a hot Australian Christmas. Infrastructure Australia’s Capturing Value paper is too important to suffer this fate: who pays for the infrastructure we need is a matter of...
Time to fix economic blight
Do you see the cat? Read on. THE PROGRESSIVE ERA Americans apparently consider the Progressive Era (1890s to 1920s) belongs to them. The period was driven by the reformist ideas of Henry George as taken up by public officials across the US political spectrum; amongst...
Productivity and Prosperity? Yes Please!
Last month, the Productivity Commission delivered a damning assessment of Australia’s productivity performance over the last 12 years in the discussion paper Increasing Australia’s future prosperity. They asked for submissions with fresh ideas. Prosper has a few: •...
Next time government says it can’t afford to build, wave this IA report in their face
Australia has a problem: we can’t build roads, rail and schools as fast as population is growing with current government financing methods. Failing to keep up with our current needs – let alone investing for an uncertain future - puts the living standards of everyone...
True Grit: leadership, political backbone and advancing the national interest
The worst tax we pay is a state charge – conveyancing Stamp Duty, which makes it hard, sometimes impossible, to move across town to a better job or around the corner to a bigger or smaller home. Anyone living with modern teenagers and the elderly in a house of many...
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