Latest News & Commentary
ABS considers ending Residential Property Price measure
The good data provided by the ABS boosts buyer confidence and actually lifts land prices. Their absence after the Abbott Government’s cost-cutting can only reduce them. This may even be the pin that pops the land bubble.
Queensland’s Retrospective Theft
Midnight Wednesday, the Queensland Parliament amended the Local Government Act and the City of Brisbane Act to legalise the theft of around $2.3 billion in differential rates charged by 20 councils on non-resident owners over the last twenty years. The...
Progress in 1111 small steps
The latest edition of Progress - our 1111th - is now available on-line (PDF) * Prosper's submission to the Senate inquiry into Affordable Housing * Financial Rules for Constructing a Strong State by Fred Harrison * It's Time to Shift States to Land Tax by Leith van...
Monbiot: rent seekers shriek reform away
Monbiot chronicles the shrieking retorts to reforms challenging their unearned incomes. Tax reform can no longer be dismissed as a dirty word left to the well connected. Here in Australia such shrieking to the mining tax, pokie or taxi license reforms was closely...
The Law of Rent in a Collaborative Economy
Renegade Economists podcast 341 As broadcast on 3CR, Wednesday May 28. Subscribe to the weekly podcast (via Itunes). This our 1st translation via Dragon Dictation. Edits for readability. Welcome to the show with your host Karl Fitzgerald. This week we are starting...
The Greens talk real tax reform
The Victorian State Council of The Greens updated their Finance and Taxation policies last weekend. Normally, I find their soft-left-populist stances mind boggling. Their tax polices, however, deserve attention – and applause. On gambling, The Greens...
Cuba for Sale?
The second in our new Evolving economics enews - sent bi-weekly. Sign up here. Read below for the surprising rationale justifying foreign investment in Cuba's newly privatised property free-for-all. Having trouble reading this newsletter? View it online. The enews of...
The eternal sunshine of the empty mind
The Queensland Supreme Court has struck out the differential rate some Queensland councils charge investors over and above residents on similar properties. Councils may be forced to pay it all back. $300 million a year is in doubt. This landmark decision exposes the...
ACT landowners are revolting
The Property Council of Australia is ‘vehemently opposed’ to Canberra’s special land levy to part-fund the $600 million light rail project from Gungahlin to the city, calling it “just another property tax in disguise”.
Goody Goody Goody!
Sometimes, through the smoke and fireworks of the national debate a political commentator sees the path forward and points the way. Today in the Australian Financial Review, Alan Mitchell takes a far-sighted approach to the crisis provoked by the Abbott government in...
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