Glad New Yr! I do know you could be hungover as you’re studying this column. I will not be light at this time. We’ll begin the 12 months with an idea so weird, outrageous one may say, that it’ll make you neglect your hangover immediately: at this time I might be praising politicians for issues they’ve performed in 2022.
Land tax reform
First let me congratulate Dominic Perrottet (the Liberal Premier of NSW) on the land tax reform in NSW. The reform was defined succinctly in previous reporting. Right here is my easy abstract.:
First dwelling consumers in NSW can now select between paying a tiny annual land tax or an enormous fats lump of stamp obligation upfront. When land and building prices are very excessive, huge stamp obligation charges make it even tougher for potential first dwelling consumers to avoid wasting sufficient cash for his or her down funds. I view this as a wise coverage change and a good one because it provides first dwelling consumers the selection. That is probably a wise means of transitioning to a brand new coverage (land tax for all new consumers) whereas slowly phasing out an previous coverage at a snail’s tempo.
WE reformed
My second little bit of reward goes to Brendan O’Connor of the Labor Celebration, the federal Minister for Expertise and Coaching, who oversaw the TAFE price reform. Right here is one other simplistic abstract:
The federal authorities negotiated a take care of the states to make a complete of 180,000 TAFE locations fee-free (a 50:50 funding association between the states and the feds). I see this as an necessary step in direction of common free TAFE in Australia. Charging Australian residents to accumulate a TAFE qualification is short-sighted. The talents scarcity in these sectors is large and will not enhance within the long-term, as I advised in previous columns.
The median revenue on a TAFE qualification is not sufficient to justify charges, whereas the upper incomes for college graduates justify charges to a level (see the desk within the very first column I wrote for The New Daily). Ideally, we’d restructure our workforce by automating low-paid jobs away as a lot as attainable and pushing staff destined for these jobs into TAFE-level jobs. We actually have the demand for sufficient such jobs.
Neither of those coverage modifications is assured to work. The longer term isn’t that straightforward to foretell. What I care about is that each insurance policies are systemic in nature relatively than lazy duct tape coverage modifications that attempt to maintain a damaged system collectively.
Pollies ought to be courageous
In 2023 I would like extra politicians to assume huge and to push huge modifications. The land tax reform is rather more useful to first dwelling consumers than the idiotic first dwelling purchaser grants, which solely drive up home costs. Free TAFE lowers the barrier coming into the Australian center class. We face huge points which can be systemic in nature (local weather change is a pleasant instance) and that want systemic thinkers, systemic options, and systemic coverage interventions.
Demographer Simon Kuestenmacher is a co-founder of The Demographics Group. His columns, media commentary and public talking concentrate on present socio-demographic traits and the way these influence Australia. Comply with Simon on Twitter or LinkedIn for day by day information insights.
