Category Archives: Tax

Grattan book City Limits highlights problems with current planning and transport policies

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Jane Frances-Kelly and Paul Donegan, formerly and currently of the Grattan Institute respectively, had an excellent book published earlier this month called City Limits, which argues strongly for cutting red tape from town planning processes, introducing congestion charging for roads, … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing, Tax, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Qld Govt faces big budgetary challenges from unreliable revenues and soaring health costs

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Gene Tunny

In yesterday’s post I noted that the Queensland Government has become increasingly reliant on volatile royalties revenue, and that its major revenue sources of Commonwealth grants and taxation revenue have been growing significantly slower than expenses in recent years. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget, Health, Tax | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Time for a Sensible Debate on Broadening the GST Net – Guest post from Michael Willis

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Last week, I spoke with Ben Davis from 4BC about broadening the GST (see 4BC interview on KPMG’s analysis of GST increase for CPA Australia). Our discussion was pretty high-level, and there were many detailed issues we could have discussed … Continue reading →

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4BC interview on KPMG’s analysis of GST increase for CPA Australia

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Gene Tunny

In response to a new report from CPA Australia (tax-reform-in-australia), the Prime Minister has ruled out changes to the GST, which is a bit of a shame, because changes to the GST should be part of any comprehensive package to … Continue reading →

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GST hike appears very likely, but Commonwealth retreat less so

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has, it seems, given the green light for raising more revenue via the GST in a speech at Tenterfield on Saturday (Sir Henry Parkes Commemorative Dinner): …the Commonwealth could stop funding programmes in areas of state … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Tax | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Economic weakness hits Qld retailers

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Gene Tunny

2014 has been a challenging year for Queensland retailers, with retail turnover not growing, and actually declining by around 1% from levels seen earlier in the year (see chart below). I suspect a large part of this is due to … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Mining, Retail trade, Tax | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

US tax guru Dan Mitchell criticises federal debt levy

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Cato Institute economist and former George H.W. Bush adviser Dan Mitchell gave a fantastic presentation tonight to the Queensland branch of the Economic Society on tax avoidance and tax competition. Dan is highly critical of OECD efforts to discourage member … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget, Tax | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Costello right to support drop in $1,000 GST-free threshold for online purchases

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Gene Tunny

I’m pleased to see former Federal Treasurer Peter Costello backs retailers’ call to lower online GST threshold. There is the obvious level playing field argument that Costello makes. Also, with Federal and State Governments facing big challenges in repairing their … Continue reading →

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Speech to University of the Third Age Redlands on the Australian Economy

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Gene Tunny

This morning I addressed the University of the Third Age Redlands at the Donald Simpson Centre, Cleveland on the topic of The Australian Economy: Where we’ve come from, where we’re going. My prepared remarks are reproduced below. I varied the … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry policy, IR, Labour market, Macroeconomy, Migration, Mining, Population, Tax, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Leading US supply-side economist Dan Mitchell to speak at Economic Society event

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Dan Mitchell, Cato Institute As Deputy Secretary of the Queensland branch of the Economic Society of Australia, it’s incumbent upon me to promote an upcoming Society event in Brisbane on Wednesday 20 August, at which leading US supply-side economist Dan … Continue reading →

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