With the sounds of despair rioting through the streets of Greece, Spain, Ireland and others who no longer have the ability to fund themselves, it is a sign of the times that even the IMF is pushing for improved tax systems relating to land values. The IMF's "What...
BLOG: Commentary
Grand Sale! Grand Sale! Grand Sale!
The Australian Government is about to sell real estate worth billions. It is a matter of critical economic importance that they get it right. Up for sale is radio spectrum for mobile phones and data signals for the next fifteen years. This is real estate as rare and...
Port of Portland: sunk
Portland (pop. 10,000) remains seriously underdeveloped. While the rest of the state has grown by leaps and bounds, Portland sleeps. Its laggard status should be a matter of considerable concern to all Victorians.
Be bold, Mr Baillieu: abolish Stamp Duty and Payroll Tax
photo credit: djking To win the election, the new Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu pledged to phase in reductions in Stamp Duty by fifty per cent on real estate transactions under $600,000 for first home buyers. This is a very modest proposal. Mr Baillieu’s incoming...
Can a tax be beautiful?
The Senate Select Committee on New Taxes is pondering the implications of the Mineral Resource Rent Tax, holding a hearing yesterday in Perth. Here is a new tax measure that, even diluted for the election, will still raise over $10 billion a year. This is a beautiful...
Blaming the 70’s Economic Bust on Oil is Incorrect
Steven Spadijer gave this years 119th Henry George Commemorative Annual Dinner. The following day we recorded this interview highlighting many of the topics discussed. You may like to look through the powerpoint below. Listen to his interview on the Renegade...
Selling alleys and lanes: latifundia at work.
Melbourne City Council is selling lanes to developers, according to The Age today. It makes a pretty penny, too, having pocketed $1.2 million from the sale of part of three lanes in the last 12 months alone. The article sparked an intense debate on the newspaper’s...
Melbourne’s secret plan
photo credit: Lucia. . . A secret map of Melbourne’s transport plans for the next 30 years was published in The Age yesterday. Doubts were raised about its authenticity (weakly, unconvincingly) by the Victorian government. Average householders may shrug, but this is a...
Bailing out property owners
photo credit: 2careless This is the text of a letter by Dr Gavin Putland published in the Australian Financial Review on Tuesday 5 October 2010: BAILING OUT PROPERTY OWNERS While I share Lucio Conte's concern about bailing out banks (Letters, October 5), I can't help...
Mr Presley has left the stadium.
photo credit: RR and Camera At the peak of his career Elvis Presley was so popular audiences would sit and clap at the end of the night, demanding encore after encore. They couldn’t get enough. The only way to end the demands and disperse the crowd was for him to...