If Australia doesn’t get a send-us-broke carbon tax due to a Federal ALP rethink, then NSW, Vic, ACT, Tas, SA, WA & NT business owners & employees & households & investors can thank Queensland.
Odd that the Qld Labor party put the defeat down largely to the ‘poor explanation’ regarding the privatisation of publicly owned assets, a couple of years ago. They seem to have forgotten the ongoing mismanagement of the Qld health system (continuing payroll debacle, NZ Prince poseur [too bizarre], lack of beds & specialist shortages, especially in regional areas – etc, etc) and completely overlooked state-wide discontent over how mining industry activities are being mismanaged – to the detriment of priceless farm land, threat to water quality (not just from coal seam gas mining – but also leaking tailings dams in the Gulf), devastating impact on other industries due to the increasing skilled labour drain and fly-in fly-out’s negative social & infrastructure impact on countless communities. Add to that, concerns regarding unmonitored and unregulated foreign purchasing of valuable agricultural land, mines and infrastructure.
And the Qld Labor government reaped a bonanza in escalating stamp duty revenue due to the property boom, and now the escalating cost of house & contents insurance. Insurance costs have risen to a point at which many people are really struggling to be able to pay for it, thus rendering increasing numbers at risk of needing very costly social welfare in the event of a disaster. But there has not been a word from the government regarding the possibility of doing what they agreed to do years ago when the GST was introduced – scrap stamp duty.
Any government that taxes it’s citizens for being responsible enough to a) pay for their own housing and b) pay to insure their own housing and their house contents, so they are not dependent on taxpayers should disaster strike – is clearly utterly stupid. In the extreme.
Stamp duty is an iniquitous tax that must be ditched as a matter of urgency. Sensible governments help people to help themselves, rather than encourage dependency on others. It’s not just socially just, it also makes economic sense.
Lastly, as one wit was quoted as saying in our local paper today: ‘what’s the difference between Queensland Labor and a Toyota Tarago? A Tarago has more seats’.
Tags: Australian agriculture