The year of 2020 was a shocking year for many reasons, from the bushfires to a global pandemic. But there were some positives too, especially for land tax reform. Here are some of the developments that should give us some cautious optimism for the years ahead. NSW’s...
Meander Valley Council in Tasmania will sell a family’s home at public auction in three weeks unless they pay their overdue rates. This reluctant display of the authority of government illustrates the limits and strengths of land title in Australia. The Examiner...
Melbourne City Council is wringing its hands again over developer land vagrancy – prime sites deliberately held vacant or with disused, dangerous buildings to assist developer lobbying of government for rezoning or advantageous building permits. The issue last hit the...
In April last year, the High Court of Australia affirmed the right of a West Tasmanian council to levy rates on the seabed within its municipal boundaries. This precedent means, in a legal sense, land is land, even underwater. It has implications for industrial...
The High Court of Australia has affirmed the right of a west Tasmanian council to levy rates on the seabed. It is still land, even underwater. Council saw the land under eight marine farming leases as ‘rateable land’, Tasmania’s Valuer General declined to value them...
Published as The Planned Obsolescence of the Public Interest in Online Opinion A fascinating power play continues in the debate over vertical fiscal imbalance. The strategic intent is prevalent from federal to local politics, where the health of the public revenue...
The Andrews government is capping local governments rate rises to CPI after fifteen years of six per cent rises in a low inflation environment. Minister for Local Government Natalie Hutchins’ Fair Go Rates System, administered by the Essential Services Commission,...
By Bryan Kavanagh and David Collyer This week’s game-changer, the Property Taxes paper by Grattan Institute has a minor error on land valuation that needs correcting before it becomes a gift to the opponents of reform. Grattan is acutely aware that on this topic they...
Cr Stephen Mayne invited a Prosper presentation at the Future Melbourne meeting last night. This followed on from the February MCC meeting I presented to in reaction to the short sighted Victorian Government decision to cap local council rating. Cr Mayne had asked...
Prosper usually looks at macro economics yet a micro example of what can go wrong in the property market - very, very wrong – might aid your concentration. Andrew, a Sydney ‘investor’ bought properties in Mackay and Blackwater Queensland, “when rents were crazy and...