Prosper Australia

For your weekend reading, sit down with a cuppa and Gareth Hutchens' E.J. Craigie Award winning work. This is a 3-part series - guaranteed to teach you something new about Australian history and economic reform.

Part one https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-24/tax-land-properly-27-billion-in-tax-revenue-prosper-australia/103623806

Part two https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-31/land-tax-monopoly-australia-henry-george/103646746

Part three https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-07/why-land-disappeared-from-economic-models-henry-george-australia/103673238

If we taxed land properly, we'd have billions of extra dollars to fund big tax cuts elsewhere. So why don't we do it? Prosper Australia says if we were smarter about taxing land, we could slash taxes on workers and businesses, writes Gareth Hutchens.

Brilliant piece by Colin Bruce Anthes details the nuance of a debate that continues to step around the fact that housing policies that fail to address the land question are not a long-term solution.

In Canada’s housing policy circles, the land crisis remains unmentionable Let’s be clear: while we might be able to make some improvements here and there through clever initiatives, we almost certainly cannot solve the housing crisis without dealing directly with the land question. The private extraction of land value doesn’t just produce a crisis for housing, but vir...

“I sense a mood among younger Australians that this situation is unacceptable and that repairs need to start somewhere. The most obvious place to begin is within the structure of the tax system,” says Ken Henry AC.

Fantastic interview with Ken Henry, well worth a read. His insights into the political challenges surrounding tax reform are incredibly valuable.

Dr Ken Henry AC and Mark Thirlwell GAICD on economic reform - AICD “I sense a mood among younger Australians that this situation is unacceptable and that repairs need to start somewhere. The most obvious place to begin is within the structure of the tax system,” says Ken Henry AC.

How did Singapore achieve a home ownership rate of 90 per cent? Can Australia learn anything from it?

Great piece from Gareth Hutchens detailing the framework of the Singapore Housing Model and what lessons Australia can learn.

TLDR; Land Value Capture is a critical tool for reinvesting publicly created value into public assets.

How did Singapore achieve a home ownership rate of 90 per cent? Can Australia learn anything from it? Singapore's home ownership rate jumped from 30 to 90 per cent over two decades. Many of its land and housing policies align with the ideas of Henry George.

"The value of land is largely not a result of the owners’ own efforts, but is instead attributable to favourable location, adjacent public services and attractive nearby private development. In other words, it is due to the efforts of the community as a whole."

https://www.ft.com/content/a3ee952d-ff42-47c8-9b34-ee1eed66da3b

Reeves has the best chance since Lloyd George of reforming property tax Once the challenge of transitioning to a tax on land value is overcome, other issues become much easier

GARETH HUTCHENS WINS 2024 EJ CRAIGIE AWARD

Prosper is pleased to declare the ABC's Gareth Hutchens as the recipient of the E.J. Craigie Writing Award for his 3-part series exploring the history of land tax reform in Australia.

Prosper Australia Communications Director Rayna Fahey said “Gareth Hutchens was presented this year's award for the articulate way in which he reached into the history of political philosophy and skillfully tied it with contemporary tax reform debates. The panel noted that Mr Hutchens' series was incredibly well researched yet succinctly presented.”

https://www.prosper.org.au/about/our-history/ej-craigie-award/

⭐ Last chance to book ⭐

There's only a handful of tickets left for this years Henry George Dinner.

Australia has so much to learn from the Singaporean approach to housing. This is a wonderful opportunity to hear from the expert.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/936117932937

133rd Annual Henry George Commemorative Dinner and Address Join us for the 133rd Henry George Commemorative Dinner and Address, to be delivered by Sock-Yong Phang, Singapore Management University.

Nominations are now open for the 2024 E.J. Craigie Writing Award.

Last years' competition was hot, with Waleed Aly taking the prize. This year will be even more competitive with a pile of nominations already received.

Read more about the award and nominate here https://www.prosper.org.au/about/our-history/ej-craigie-award/

BRISBANE: FREE EVENT

Value capture and affordable housing: economic lessons from Singapore. With Professor Sock-Yong Phang from the Singapore Management University.

This is a must-see event for anyone interested in the Singapore housing model.

Brisbane: Value capture and affordable housing: economic lessons from Singapore | Prosper Australia Brisbane: Value capture and affordable housing: economic lessons from Singapore by Rayna Fahey | Jul 24, 2024 | Events Join us for a seminar and discussion with one of Singapore’s leading urban economists, Professor Sock-Yong Phang. Prosper Australia in conjunction with the Cities Research Institu...

🎟️ TICKETS ON SALE 🎟️

The 133rd Henry George Commemorative Address with a key note address by Sock-Yong Phang is on August 15th, at the Kelvin Club, Melbourne.

Early bird tickets available now.

133rd Annual Henry George Commemorative Dinner and Address Join us for the 133rd Annual Henry George Dinner and Address -Thursday, Aug 15th, 2024, in Melbourne. Keynote by Prof Sok-Yong Phang

Our 11th Speculative Vacancies report was released today.

Covering the years 2019-2023, the report reveals startling statistics on the extent of unoccupied housing in Melbourne.

We found that over 27,000 homes, or 1.5% of all dwellings, were left entirely empty for 2023. With the inclusion of under-used homes recording less than a quarter of the average single-person consumption over the year, a total of almost 100,000 homes, or one in 20 dwellings across the city, were vacant.

In the middle of a housing and a cost-of-living crisis, we need to look at the economic factors driving this waste. So we can start turning these figures around.

Vacant homes and land banking are examples of how housing supply is held hostage by speculation, showing us the need for more effective land taxes.

Read the report www.prosper.org.au/specvac11
Learn more www.prosper.org.au/emptyhomes

We applaud a closer look at the role land taxes, including rates, play in the housing affordability conversation. Differential rates are probably not the best solution, as they can lead to unintended consequences.

Victoria's incremental approach to land tax reform is working well. The biggest issue councils can tackle is shifting rates away from Capital Improved Value (CIV) and onto Site Value Rating (SVR).

SVR recognises that all landlords benefit from strong communities with great infrastructure, but doesn't punish development.

Landlord rates could double under this councillor’s plan Data has shown investors are fleeing the Victorian property market, but that was offset by first home buyers.

Housing supply doesn't just mean building new houses, it also means turning empty homes into rentable homes.

A Land Value Tax helps ensure land is put to best possible use.

What's the link between low rental vacancy rates, housing crises, and unoccupied home taxes? Australia's rental vacancy rate hit a record low recently. But what is the vacancy rate actually signifying? And could an unoccupied home tax help to solve our housing crisis?

Ahead of the Federal Budget next week, we are getting plenty of hints that some major housing announcements are on the way. But will we see meaningful tax reform?

Check out this interesting conversation on RN with Angela Jackson, featuring many of the elements of our campaign.

What tax changes would you like to see in the budget? - ABC listen Treasurer Jim Chalmers has already indicated next week's budget will do what it can to take the pressure of inflation, with tax reform on the agenda.

Today's Victorian State Budget was pretty disappointing, especially for the 58,459 on the public housing waiting list. Instead of a major commitment to build more social housing, this government is continuing to subsidise the private sector.

We need to stop penalising business for employing people and shift taxes off payroll and onto land.

We need a

https://www.prosper.org.au/2024/05/helping-families-an-empty-promise-for-victorians-on-public-housing-waiting-lists-and-victorian-businesses-are-paying-the-price/

Happy birthday Progress!

Today marks 120 years since the 1st edition of Progress was published. We are so proud to be working on the 1134th edition of our progressive economics publication.

You can read the last 12 issues on our website https://www.prosper.org.au/progress/

All Prosper members receive Progress in the mail. Join today to get yours https://www.prosper.org.au/join/

We're pleased to hear that the government is introducing legislation to support the local productive sector. However, any legislative changes must include tax reform.

We need a off production eg income & payroll taxes and onto speculation eg land, pollution, & resources.

https://www.prosper.org.au/campaigns/taxshift/

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/2024/04/11/future-made-in-australia

Future made in Australia: PM's plan for economic growth A plan to boost locally made resources and jobs, especially in green energy, in Australia will be unveiled by the prime minister.

Ken Henry in a succinct yet compelling interview on ABC Radio about the challenges of intergenerational inequity and what needs to be done.

"We have to start with tax reform"

"Instead of placing reliance on [income taxes] we should be placing more reliance on land, consumption, natural resources, windfall gains, economic, rents, wealth, environmental externalities, and user charges."

Yes! We need a

Ken Henry: We are breaking the 'golden rule' of economic policy - ABC listen One of Australia's most seasoned policy thinkers is escalating his calls for major economic reform, warning that tinkering around the edges will doom the next generation to a lower standard of living. Former Treasury boss Ken Henry says the country is heading towards an "intergenerational tragedy".....

The third piece in Gareth Hutchens' ABC series on Henry George and the history of Georgist thought in Australia is out now.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-07/why-land-disappeared-from-economic-models-henry-george-australia/103673238

He explores the notion that economists are good at answering questions, but not particularly good at asking them.

The constant frustration of those who understand what George had to say is hearing national debates of equity and resource distribution eg housing, that don't centre the role of land and economic rent. This article does a great job of explaining how that situation came to be.

For those who have been following our work you will notice that we don't just talk about land. We talk about monopoly rents.

Because we see a clear distinction between earned and unearned income.

The way we treat these two forms of income have different economic outcomes, yet neoclassical economists would have us believe they are the same thing.

Tax reform is on the agenda in Australia, as the gap between land price and wages stretches once again. This is not a natural phenomena and one which we could chose to fix.

Our Tax Shift campaign aims to help shift the debate towards long-term solutions for poverty and inequality.

prosper.org.au/taxshift

Join us.

prosper.org.au/join/

Why did land disappear from some economic models? Economists are debating 'big questions' again, with land and wealth at the top of the list.

Prosper Australia has always stood very proud of our 130+ year lineage advocating for the ideas of Henry George.

As time has progressed, and society and technology have evolved, these ideas of economic justice have truly stood the test of time.

When societies succeed the value is reflected in the land value below them. This community-created value should be captured as the natural source of government revenue.

Gareth Hutchens latest article details the history of Henry George in Australia and is well worth the read.

What do land tax, Monopoly, and Australia have in common? Have you played Monopoly? The boardgame was designed to teach us about rents. Some economists say if we took rents seriously we could solve many problems.

"It's a basic principle of tax design. If you want less of something you tax it more, and if you want more of something you tax it less."

Gareth Hutchens dives deep into our proposals and asks "Are we finally ready to have a conversation like that?"

We think so.

If we taxed land properly, we'd have billions of extra dollars to fund big tax cuts elsewhere. So why don't we do it? Prosper Australia says if we were smarter about taxing land, we could slash taxes on workers and businesses, writes Gareth Hutchens.

When you think of high income tax most people immediately think of high wage earners. In fact, the Australian workers facing the highest rate of taxation are some of the poorest.

Withdrawing welfare payments as incomes rise is economically identical to taxing income. Withdrawal or ‘taper’ rates for many welfare payments are as high as 50% or 60%, and in combination with income taxation, these taper rates produce extraordinarily high effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs) for many workers.

In a country that prides itself on giving everyone a fair go, our welfare system should not be putting barriers in the way of people wanting to work.

Our new report shows how we can lift these barriers by replacing these “bad” taxes with much more efficient land taxes.

Media release: https://tinyurl.com/emtrmedia
Report: https://tinyurl.com/emtrreport

NEW RESEARCH: Buying better income taxes with better land taxes

Prosper Australia today released new research highlighting the economic benefits of shifting taxes off income and onto land.

“Our research found that if other states taxed land like the ACT we’d have enough revenue to cut welfare taper rates in half, giving one million people an effective tax cut of 20-30 cents in the dollar, and putting cash in the pocket of two million more." - Tim Helm, Research Director.

Report highlights:
- Low and middle income earners face effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs) on extra income as high as 80%. High EMTRs are a disincentive to work.
- Reducing high EMTRs to provide fairer and more efficient returns to work requires either lower welfare payments, higher top tax rates, or reform of the tax mix.
- Levelling state taxes on land up to the ACT benchmark could raise $27 billion more in revenue each year without reducing investment or growth.
- With changes to Commonwealth-state grants, this tax shift could fund a halving of all welfare withdrawal rates, producing an effective tax cut of 20-30 cents in the dollar for over one million workers, and extra cash in the pocket for around two million more.

Read our media release: https://tinyurl.com/emtrmedia
Read the report: https://tinyurl.com/emtrreport

This story in The Age is rather misleading https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/victorian-home-building-approvals-crash-to-decade-low-mark-despite-labor-promise-20240304-p5f9r5.html
Councils set rules about what can be built where, but when to build is a market decision.

We agree with Housing Industry Association that this drop is unsurprising - approvals drop off when developers can’t make projects stack up because of market conditions. Increasing taxation on second homes was a good intervention because it leaned into freeing existing housing stock. The vacant residential land tax is making an impact too.

In an environment of high construction costs, the government has limited room to manoeuvre. Making it costly to consume more land than you need sends the right message.

What is clear from the ABS data behind this story is that Victoria is not out of line with the other states.

The Age needs to work on their headlines.

Victorian home building approvals crash to decade-low mark despite Labor promise Victoria wants to build 80,000 new homes on average every year until 2034, but grim construction figures show the state is already falling behind.

We're looking forward to Dr. Cameron Murray's book launch in Melbourne in a couple of weeks. This free event is hosted by the RMIT Urban Futures Platform. Our President Catherine Cashmore will be on the panel.

Registrations are now open - https://events.humanitix.com/the-great-housing-hijack

WE'RE HIRING

Prosper Australia is recruiting a new General Manager to help our organisation bring the message of a fair economy to our nation's decision makers.

https://www.ethicaljobs.com.au/members/ProsperAustralia/general-manager

Stamp duty hurts young, working families the most. Abolishing stamp duty and expanding land tax will mean families won’t be unfairly burdened when they need to upsize (or downsize). But as with all things tax reform, the devil is in the transition detail.

We have a plan.

Read it here

Stamp Duty to Land Tax Stamp duty hurts young, working families the most and unfairly targets those who need to move. Abolishing stamp duty and expanding land tax will mean families won’t be unfairly burdened when they need to upsize or move closer to work.

ICYMI: Prof Ross Garnaut delivered the 2023 Henry George Commemorative Address. You can watch the full address on our YouTube Channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOXGSkWSxqY

Read the transcript on our website

https://www.prosper.org.au/2023/09/australia-made-for-free-trade-and-a-tax-on-rent/

WATCH: Yesterday Prof Rod Sims and Prof Ross Garnaut delivered a compelling address to the National Press Club calling for an economic transformation to address the challenges of climate change.

https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2411C003S00

Their calls reflect our proposal to tax extraction prosper.org.au/taxshift