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.
Category Commentary
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
Guardian, Labor on UK LVT Push
photo credit: Apogee Photography In today’s Guardian via Mark Braund, author of The Possibilities of Progress (available in our bookshop), summarises the rising impetus of LVT in UK politics. As a long-time supporter of land value taxation (LVT), it’s encouraging…
Australia’s AAA credit rating affirmed. How’s yours?
i photo credit: Susanica The credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s overnight reaffirmed Australia’s AAA rating. Donald Horne’s 1964 label ‘The Lucky Country’ was ironic, yet fits our unique position as the western world endures its worst financial crisis since…