Prosper Australia Feed Items

By Cameron Murray and Tim Helm This article was originally published on Fresh Economic Thinking. Posted here with permission. A recent working paper by Schuyler Louie, John A. Mondragon, and Johannes Wieland has been making waves in urban economics circles. The paper title might provide a clue as to why— “Supply Constraints do not Explain House Price […]

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft strategy. Prosper Australia is an economic think tank working in the Georgist tradition, with a long history of research into property taxation. We wish to raise one major point: the draft strategy lacks an infrastructure funding strategy. The draft recommendations cover several governance and […]

Let tax reform drive your voting decision this election with the Prosper Australia 2025 policy scorecard.

Prosper Australia urges the government to embrace real reform that ensures prosperity is shared by all.

Value capture is an equitable and efficient funding mechanism to support the development of high speed rail. It ensures that those who benefit the most from high speed rail contribute to its cost.

Prosper Australia was proud to join with Per Capita and a host of other organisations across the community sector in presenting the 2025 Community Tax Summit. Held in the richly historic Trades Hall, the Community Tax Summit was a two-day conference that brought together researchers, advocates, people with lived experience, and economists to examine how […]

Prosper Australia today expressed deep disappointment at the Victorian Government’s continued failure to implement value capture mechanisms in its recent upzoning announcements. By allowing landowners to reap windfall gains without returning a fair share to the community, the government has missed a vital opportunity to fund essential infrastructure and public services.

Over the past century and a half, politics and economics have evolved significantly in how we manage society. Yet, the core principle remains: every person born on this earth has a right to a share of its bounty.

What could $27 billion fund if Commonwealth-state transfers were adjusted to bring revenue and expenses for each level of government closer to balance?

The relationship between older, younger, and future Australians and our tax and spending priorities is based on an implicit generational bargain. Working age taxpayers support older and younger Australians and can expect the next generation to support them in the same way, and economic and social development will enable each successive generation to enjoy rising living standards. At the very least, we should not leave the next generation worse off.

Prosper Australia today released new research examining Australia’s resource royalties. Australian states could capture an additional $14.5 billion in revenue each year by moving to a more flexible royalty model with variable rates that adjust to market conditions.

Prosper Australia has expressed strong concerns over the Allan Labor Government’s recent announcement of 50 new activity centres across Victoria, citing the absence of any form of Land Value Capture (LVC) mechanism as a missed opportunity to ensure fairness and economic sustainability.

133rd Henry George Commemorative Dinner Address by Professor Sock-Yong Phang, Singapore Management University, Kelvin Club, Melbourne, 15 August 2024    Value capture and affordable housing: insights from Singapore  Good evening, everyone. Thank you, Dr Tim Helm for the kind introduction. And a big thank you to the Executive Committee members of Prosper Australia. I am […]

The following opinion piece was written by Gareth Hutchens and published in the ABC on Sunday 31st March, 2024. It is reproduced here with permission. This piece of writing was part of a 3-part series, awarded the 2024 E.J. Craigie Writing Award.

Prosper Australia is an economic research organisation founded in the Georgist tradition of political philosophy. Our work centres on the monopolistic nature of land and how it shapes our economy and society. We have a long history of research into property taxation and local government rating systems.   We wish to raise five points in relation […]

Prosper Australia condemns the latest Federal Budget as a missed opportunity for much-needed tax reform.

Prosper Australia today declared its disappointment at the state budget inaction on housing and tax reform. “The Housing Statement declared a goal of 800,000 new homes over the next decade, yet this budget contains only minor announcements on an increased construction for public housing,” said spokesperson Rayna Fahey. “We need dollars for dwellings, not developers.” […]

Supply targets alone won’t solve the problem – we need redistribution and tax reform Prosper Australia today condemned the punitive approach taken by the Allan government to address housing supply, calling the strategy a complete miss of the mark. “Our research shows that Melbourne does not have a supply issue, rather an issue with distribution […]

3 million workers could benefit from tax shift Prosper Australia today released new research highlighting the economic benefits of shifting taxes off income and onto land.  Report highlights: Low and middle income earners face effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs) on extra income as high as 80%. High EMTRs are a disincentive to work. Reducing high […]

The Great Housing Hijack is the latest book by Dr Cameron Murray. Here at Prosper Australia we have been following Cameron’s work for quite some time. Some of our supporters will remember his entertaining Henry George Commemorative Address in 2018. The Great Housing Hijack is a compelling read and explains the history of land prices […]

Tweaking individual policies will not deliver the change Australia needs: we must capture the consensus and commit to reforming our tax system away from earned and onto unearned income.

Prosper’s Director of Research and Policy, Tim Helm, was interviewed by Cameron Murray for the Fresh Economic Thinking podcast on 9 November 2023.  Their conversation covered the relationship between the prices of land and housing, how to define and measure landbanking, incentives for landbanking, the relationship between landbanking and housing supply, and methodological issues in […]

Presentation to the Planning Institute of Australia’s Victorian Conference, October 13, 2023 Today I want to take you on a rapid intellectual journey, a therapeutic crash-course, to convince you all to stop worrying about housing affordability – and instead, to learn to love high land values. Land takes the gains… Riddle me this: When planners […]

Prosper Australia today welcomed the announcement that the Vacant Residential Land Tax (VRLT) will be expanded to include suburban undeveloped and regional sites.

Victoria's new Housing Partnership shows a lot of promise. The devil will be in the detail. Prosper Australia unpacks the issues.

132nd Henry George Address by Professor Ross Garnaut Australia: Made for Free Trade and a Tax on Rent (Transcript of speech recorded at the Kelvin Club, Melbourne, 7 September 2023. Lightly edited for clarity and brevity.) Thanks, Tim, and very good to be here with this group of people. Very good to know that such […]

Waleed Aly Wins E.J. Craigie Writing Award for best article reflecting the ideas of Henry George as a social and economic reformer.

If we’re going to have to rethink our tax system, rent-seeking seems a good place to start. Perhaps if we taxed productive profit less than its unproductive counterpart, we’d have the seedlings of a system better designed to meet what the Intergenerational Report warns us is coming.

Prosper Australia welcomes Inquiry attention to Stamp Duty to Land Tax transition Prosper Australia today commended the Victorian Legislative Council’s Inquiry into Land transfer duty fees for their careful attention to the difficult issues involved in transitioning from stamp duty to a land tax. Prosper Australia Director of Research and Policy, Tim Helm, says: “We […]

Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee 7 July 2023 Thank you for the opportunity to submit to the Legal and Social Issues Committee’s inquiry into rental and housing affordability. Prosper Australia is an independent research institute formed over 100 years ago to further public knowledge of the teachings and principles of economist and land […]

Planning deregulation, especially rezoning, has been repeatedly touted as a key policy solution to Australia’s eye watering house prices. The story goes that prices remain high because the supply of new dwellings in accessible, desirable locations has not kept pace with demand due to zoning restrictions. Rezoning for higher uses will increase supply and make […]

by Jehan Azad & Uri Bram Wired Magazine (published May 4, 2023). Reprinted with permission. “There’s no such thing as a good landlord” is a rallying cry of angry renters. In the future, it might be conventional morality that it’s simply wrong to own land. In our times, owning land seems as natural as owning […]

My belief is that Community Land Trusts (CLTs) can demonstrate the benefits of recycling land rents for the common good. This will support the larger Georgist agenda with a micro version of the macro vision. It’s been 12 months since we started Grounded Community Land Trust advocacy. Our job is to support the CLT movement […]