Crispin Hull

Yesterday’s ACT Budget involved a lot of back-slapping and self-congratulation by the ACT Government. But that should be tempered by the fact that a lot of work is yet to be done on the expenditure side. The Government has, indeed, improved the fiscal outlook for the ACT considerably over the position at this time last year. However, much of that has to be put down to extra revenue, particularly revenue from the Commonwealth or easy revenue options that merely match the position in NSW or rely on the old milch cows of utilities and gambling.

The Government got an extra $85 million from the Commonwealth (admittedly some of it capital). That represents all but $1 million of the Budget turnaround from an actual loss of $150 million in 1998-99 to the budgeted loss of $64 million in this Budget. So $85 million of the $86 million improvement can be put down to the Feds.

True, the ACT did a huge amount of work to convince the Commonwealth Grants Commission and the Federal Government to come up with the extra money, and for that it should be congratulated. But at the end of the day it is still federal money, not ACT-raised money.
Continue reading “1999_05_may_leader05may act budget”

The Government has foolishly gone ahead with its plan to allow 4000 Kosovars to come to Australia temporarily. The Government will grant them three-month visas. The theory is that they will return to Kosovo when the situation changes.

The measure is an attempt to at once please people who have been rightly shocked by events in Kosovo and want Australia to help and those who want Australia to have lower immigration. The result is that the Government will please none. Nor should it with such a misguided policy. The theory is that they will return to Kosovo when the situation changes.

The people who will suffer most will be the 4000 who arrive here. They will be given the false hope that they will return to their homeland in three months. There is no guarantee that the situation will allow them to return in that time. In the meantime they will be housed in temporary accommodation. They will be half way around the world. They will be far from home. They will live with only hope. It will be a very costly exercise to bring people half way around the world on a temporary basis.
Continue reading “1999_05_may_leader03may refos”

The Federal Government’s health policies continue to unravel.

At the weekend figures were issued by the private health funds, the Australian Health Insurance Association, saying that there had been 100,000 new memberships for the first three months of the year. The figure might well be inflated, but even taking it at its face, it reveals that the 30 per cent tax rebate for private health insurance has been an unmitigated failure and an utter waste of public money.

The Government estimates that the rebate will cost the public purse about $1.5 billion a year. This money will go straight into the pockets of those who have taken out private health insurance. What has the rebate done in attracting people to private insurance in order to lower the drain on public funds? It has attracted just 100,000 memberships, and that is on the generous figures of the private health insurance lobby. If we multiply the 100,000 memberships by an approximate $1500 per premium we get $150 million. So we get an extra $150 million into the health sector for the expenditure by the Government of $1.5 billion.
Continue reading “1999_05_may_leader03may health insure”

So the Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, wants four-year terms for Parliament. He is proposing a referendum on the subject next year at the same time as a referendum on the republic which would have to take place in Queensland if the republic referendum passes federally.

Queensland is the only state to have three-year terms. All other states have four-year terms. The ACT has a fixed three-year term.
Continue reading “1999_05_may_leader03may 4y terms”

Last week’s wage decision by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to award a small pay rise two million of Australia’s lowest paid workers illustrates the evolution of Australia’s industrial relations landscape. The evolution has taken some pain and has taken place in a changing international climate in which Australia of necessity was a part.

The commission ruled that workers on awards earning up to and including $510 a week get $12, and those earning more than $510 get $10. The pay rise does not apply to higher paid workers in enterprise agreements. The outcome was closer to the Federal Government’s suggestion of a $8 pay rise than the ACTU’s claim for $26.60 per week.

The commission rejected an ACTU claim for a five per
Continue reading “1999_05_may_leader03may 4y terms”

The unsatisfactory nature of the Australian tax and welfare system was illustrated last week by the fate of the $12 pay rise for the lowest pay workers.

According to the director of Access Economics, Chris Richardson, taxation and lost family benefits would eat up most of the increase. Most people would get $1.50 in the hand out of the $12. A third would go on tax and half of it would go in lost family benefits.

It seems absurd that so many Australians are at once paying significant tax and at the same time getting it back in the form of family benefits. The threshold for both should be lifted.
Continue reading “1999_05_may_leader01may tax and wages”

The most recent issue of Family Matters paints a bleak picture for home ownership in Australia.

Ian Winters, a senior research fellow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, bemoans what he sees as an end to explicit social policy support for home ownership. Attached to the article was a graph of home-ownership figures over the past 40 years. The graph and a report about Winters’ comments were published earlier in the week and the graph is reproduced here.

Winters acknowledged many factors in the rate of home ownership. Nonetheless he emphasised the social policy and policy aims of government as critical.
Continue reading “1999_05_may_housing forum”

The best thing to come out of the GST deal is an idea – the idea of a minimum company tax of 20 per cent.

It is a good idea because the poor of PAYE taxpayer is being hit harder and harder. And we need a simple way to make the wealthy pay their way. The wealthy may not see it, but ultimately it is in their interests, too. The more unequal society, the higher incidence of poor health and crime, both of which affect us all.
Continue reading “1999_05_may_gst oped”

The wrong people are gambling on the wrong things. And the tax burden on the gambles are falling in the wrong places.

This week the ACT Budget increased the amount of tax on gambling. It will now raise put on some extra gambling taxes. Gambling taxes will rise to $54.8 million, or 9.8 per cent of ACT taxes, up from 9.2 per cent.

Forget the absurdity of the Budget at the same time allotting $0.5 million to research the social costs of gambling. We know; they are shocking. Gambling taxes will raise double the amount raised by land tax.
Continue reading “1999_05_may_gambling shares forum”

The separation of powers and checks and balances are all very well, but political systems need a workable circuit breaker – as the GST fiasco is revealing.

Circuit breakers, you will recall live in the power box. When something ghastly happens in the electrical circuitry, like a big surge of power or some idiot jamming a screwdriver into the toaster, the circuit breaker trips. The circuit breaks so no-one gets electrified and so significant part of the circuit or appliance gets wrecked. When the ghastly happening stops it is a simple matter to retriever the circuit breaker. You don’t have to grovel under the house or into the walls to find out which bit of the cabling melted, or replace the very expensive thingummyjig in the refrigerator.

No we have a political circuit breaker in Australia for the sorts of occasions when Brian Harradine jambs a screwdriver into the toaster. It is called a double dissolution. But it is a very expensive and cumbersome circuit-breaker and it does not always work.
Continue reading “1999_05_may_circuit breakers”