| Christmas is only now upon us, but for Prosper it’s been a year of unexpected gifts. NSW’s overhaul of their infrastructure contributions system takes them in the direction of genuine value capture funding for regional transport. We’ve been talking about Victoria’s new tax so often my 11 year old daughter thinks collecting rezoning windfall gains is my job. QLD is closing the loophole for interstate property speculators to take advantage of lower land tax rates in multiple states. Treasurer, Cameron Dick, wants to establish a total national taxable land value for owners with landholdings across multiple states and territories. The measure has elicited howls of outrage from QLD Real Estate Institute. Our annual Speculative Vacancies report is due for release in early 2022. The public discussion of real estate speculation has come a long way since we first started writing up Melbourne’s real vacancy rate. This fantastic short: Why New York’s Billionaires’ Row Is Half Empty by The B1M (a channel for construction and civil engineering fanatics) has had 3.7million views in 6 days! There’s no doubt the housing market has been cracker-hat-crazy. Prosper declared a ‘national economic emergency’ predicting land prices would increase by $600bn. We were out by more that $1 TRILLION! We’ve been making little explainer videos to help people understand the economics. This terrific interview with Michael Hudson on Alan Kohler’s podcast explores the role of taxation: “Land tax in Australia is so low that the entire rental value of land is available to be pledged to banks that immediately capitalise it into mortgage loans” “Australia has made a choice not to… make land the tax base, but to tax labour and industry”. A tax shift must be the urgent priority for the incoming federal government. Holistic tax reform led by Canberra is all we want for Christmas 2022. Can you help us get tax reform on the agenda? There’s never been a better time to support our work with a tax-deductible donation! Finally, at this time of year, I find myself reflecting on the life of Jesus of Nazareth as a political-economy activist. Another interview with Michael Hudson about his book Forgive them their Debts. A fascinating and educational alternative to a Netflix Christmas rom-com. Yours towards progress without poverty, Emily and the Team at Prosper Australia |