Latest News & Commentary
Property Lobby’s million dollar no-show
On Friday May the 13th the entire real estate industry launched into full attack-mode against those willing to reform negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. The ALP and the Greens have both announced reforms targeting the subsidy to landed interests....
Bad taxes are destroying our jobs and enterprises – here’s proof
World-class fertiliser producer Incitec Pivot Ltd has painfully written $105m off its Gibson Island plant in Brisbane – squeezed by high gas costs, low Urea prices and bad taxes – just as it enters a major 'shut' to refurbish this key national industrial asset....
The Easy Economics of High Speed Rail
Last week I was invited to give a presentation at Melbourne University to the Beyond Zero Emissions discussion group on the ability of Land Value Capture to finance infrastructure. They also asked for an Econ 101 type introduction. In 2014, BZE released a report Zero...
4 Corners hard-boils ‘Home Truths’ from our land bubble
Australia’s premier TV current affairs program 4 Corners has a reputation for game-changing. Thoughtful analysis and a giant audience will do that. When it thunders, the time has arrived for a full reset. Last night’s episode ‘Home Truths’ lanced The Great Australian...
4 Corners: Home Truths
President Catherine Cashmore has been busy with the 4 Corners team filming a number of scenes around Melbourne. Tonight we find out which scenes make national TV in a much overdue investigation into the pressure housing affordability places on society. Thanks to all...
Who Owns the Earth?
As published on Aeon, this gives a solid grounding in the overall philosophy of our equal right to the value of the earth. The best article I have read this year. by Antonia Malchik My mother likes to say she was born out of the back of a ’39 Ford. She wasn’t,...
Speculation defeating productivity
Forthcoming elections have divided the USA, the UK and Australia over much the same issue: the big end of town versus people expressing concern at their isolation from the political process. The sins of Wall Street in capturing unearned incomes via inflated mortgages...
Does your SMSF have a goat?
Those with a Self Managed Superannuation Fund who hold englobo land in Victoria will need a fresh accessory after the state budget: a goat to eat weeds. Treasurer Tim Pallas has kindly extended the englobo wheeze that deems unimproved land within urban growth...
Vic land tax: Politics I Economics III, Politics wins
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas will deliver the state’s 2016 Budget in a few minutes. Surpluses totalling $9.2 million over the next four years are pre-announced, as is the foreign property buyers’ Stamp Duty surcharge of 7 per cent and the State Land Tax surcharge of...
Kiwis look at Land Tax on foreigners
Following the move by the Victorian government to increase taxes on foreign investors in real estate, the New Zealand government is considering it. We do note this type of piecemeal reform arouses concern at its discriminatory nature, distilling the people's...
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