Background (Preamble):
This petition is to gather all the people of Australia to press for nationwide review of the Australian Federal Land Tax.
If the Australian economy has come through the Global Financial Crisis in fine shape, why does it seem that there isn't enough opportunity to go around?
Conservatives tell us that we have to make our own opportunities. Well, we can make some of them if we work hard enough. But there are other essential opportunities that we cannot make for ourselves and cannot even be born with. The most important of these opportunities is access to Land.
Skilled, unskilled, and professional employees need access to LAND or a HOUSE & LAND package within commuting distance of the job. That House and Land package will generally be the most expensive family purchase of a lifetime. In reality, the dwelling cost of a house has stayed fairly constant while the LAND component has almost tripled in the last 8 years. No increase in workers take home pay has tripled to match the land price increase. We all know what gives value to LAND! "location, location, location" In other words Transport, Schools, Public Services, Hospitals, Law Enforcement, Employment and many more. Land price comes from competition for that LAND which has location value. The dwelling or factory on the land is a depreciating asset.
Employers face the same problems of access to LAND or FACTORY as the workers. They need a place to run their business within commuting distance of the workers' homes. The better the business opportunities surrounding that LAND or FACTORY, the more competition you will have for access to that space, so the higher the price you will have to pay. This is the market place in action and that is fair competition.
Employers face the same access problems as workers. Both bosses and workers need an opportunity that they are not born with and cannot make for themselves, that is, access to LAND.
The Market place works well when all available land is not withheld and the price is decided by competition. But all too often we see Land withheld from the Market-place so as to maximise the Unearned Income. This unearned income in most cases is not taxed at all or is taxed at a disproportionate rate to taxes paid by both Employers and Employees. But the biggest sin of all is that the withholding of Land from production drives the cost of production up and wages down making it ever more difficult for that once in a life time purchase.
This Unearned Income can easily become part of our current tax system by the simple reintroduction of the Federal Land Tax. A tax on the value (not Price) of all land and natural resources would lift the burden from all who seek to be productive.
Reintroduction of the Federal LAND TAX is possible in Australia for the following reasons.
- Australia since 1901 has and still maintains the most up to date Land Value data in the world.
- Federal LAND TAX has been used in Australia before.
- Most states within Australia use or have used a form of Land Value Taxation for the collection of Local Government Rates and other State Taxes.
A most important factor about a Federal LAND TAX is it cannot be avoided because it is a charge upon the value of the Land itself not price, and you cannot hide land. “Prosper Australia” and the “Association for Good Government” believe that the reintroduction of the Federal LAND TAX will greatly add to the productivity of Australia and aid in the simplification of the Australian Taxation system. They further believe that more land will become available for the great Australian dream of home ownership with the levying of a Federal Land Tax. A reintroduction of the Federal LAND TAX will mean that if anyone wishing to withhold land from production in return for that Unearned Income will pay for the privilege.
John Poulter 16/03/10