BLOG: Terry Dwyer

Boom-bust and the Australian banks

Australia experienced an increasingly gigantic bubble in land prices during the 1880s and the beginning of the 1890s, and the city of Melbourne became bubble-central. Michael Cannon provides an excellent account of the period in The Land Boomers. Henry George's...

GST Inequity Obvious

Letters to the Editor As published in the AFR April 7th It is absurd to say switching from income tax to GST improves work incentives. Consumption equals income minus savings. A 20% GST is much the same as a 20% flat rate income tax with no tax-free threshold but with...

Water – Beneficiary Should Pay

Letters to the Editor Australian Financial Review LAND BENEFITS The comment by Marcus Spiller (AFR 3-5 January, Our cities should be allowed to water their own green shoots) on why per kl charging for water was better than “property” taxes nicely illustrates what is...

ACT Rates Scaremongering

Regarding the recent ACT Liberal Party scare campaign against rates, Dr Terry Dwyer writes: Being fundamentally disinterested in political games but keenly interested in policy and good government (which, judging from Mr Slipper’s emails, sadly does not always seem to...

Carrying through the Henry Logic

Letter to the Editor - Aust Financial Review Dr Terry Dwyer (Read Dr Dwyer's Henry Review Submission) The Henry Tax Review has rightly acknowledged the fundamental economic principle that a tax on land (including resource) rents is the ultimate non-distorting tax....

Henry Review Exclusions

The Business Council of Australia wants to raise GST in return for a halving of corporate tax rates in its latest Henry Review submission. This will increase the regressive rate of taxation upon the less privileged. With effective corporate tax rates at barely 5% due...

An Independent A.C.T Taxation Policy

This article was presented at a late 1980's meeting prior to ACT self government and published in the Canberra Times. Terry Dwyer ACT finances will come from three sources - taxes, grants and borrowings. I do not propose to say much about borrowings because borrowings...

History’s Lessons – Terry Dwyer

The Australian Mr Michael Janda’s advocacy of land value taxation as a means of lowering the tax burden on both workers and entrepreneurs is well advised. As Adam Smith recognized, there are only three factors of production - land, labour and capital - and only one of...