Even if you remove the slave state, the power vacuum will ensure another slave state emerges to replace it. Slavery and oppression are a natural features of life. We humans enslave and oppress livestock. There is only one option then and that is not to resist slavery but to understand the slave system, survive within it, and live within the system as best we can.
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
10 September 2016
30 December 2010
Public Sector Pay in Australia
Ted Baillieu, after defeating John Brumby in the 2010 Victorian State Election, has made it clear that he wants to get to work on fixing the state's problems inherited from the previous government by holding a parliamentary sitting day early on 21 December 2010. During this parliamentary sitting day, the new Treasurer of Victoria Kim Wells MP presented the Budget Update 2010-11.
One of the key messages of this budget update is that the size of the Victorian government has gotten too big and is unsustainable. Because of this, the Liberals will need to implement an austerity measure that will see a minimum $100 million net operating surplus achieved per year in addition to an election promise to find $1.6 billion in savings over the next four years.
Page 2 of the Budget Update states the following: "Growth in the size and cost of government threatens to reduce Victoria’s tax competitiveness, without generating any offsetting improvements in productivity."
Recent statistics show that public sector wages have increase by 6.3 per cent in the three months from May 2010 to Aug 2010, more than private sector wage increases of 4.3 per cent during the same period of time. (Source: Are We Paying the Public Sector Too Much?)
The biggest increases are found among those working in the public sector in finance roles (8.7 per cent increase) and public administration (5.5 per cent increase).
"On average, public sector employees earned just shy of $60K per year — $8k more if you work for the Commonwealth government. Those working in electricity, gas, water and waste averaged more than $82K per year (no wonder the bills keep going up), compared to those in education who managed $51K."
One of the key messages of this budget update is that the size of the Victorian government has gotten too big and is unsustainable. Because of this, the Liberals will need to implement an austerity measure that will see a minimum $100 million net operating surplus achieved per year in addition to an election promise to find $1.6 billion in savings over the next four years.
Page 2 of the Budget Update states the following: "Growth in the size and cost of government threatens to reduce Victoria’s tax competitiveness, without generating any offsetting improvements in productivity."
The biggest increases are found among those working in the public sector in finance roles (8.7 per cent increase) and public administration (5.5 per cent increase).
"On average, public sector employees earned just shy of $60K per year — $8k more if you work for the Commonwealth government. Those working in electricity, gas, water and waste averaged more than $82K per year (no wonder the bills keep going up), compared to those in education who managed $51K."
12 July 2009
New Directions for Affordable Housing
I've been reading an ALP document called New Directions for Affordable Housing. The paper addresses the issue of housing affordability in Australia. One of the points made in the paper is that house prices are not going to come down if the government simply increases the supply of land.
Some will argue that buying land in the fringes of town is inappropriate because those who lives in these houses will need to travel a long way to get to the city. Even if houses are cheap in the outer suburbs, traveling back and forth to the city all the time to get to work will waste a lot of time and petrol. The solution to this problem is simple. When government releases land in the fringes of town, don't just zone them residential but also zone them commercial or industrial. This will allow businesses to build offices in the outer suburbs, providing jobs to nearby citizens.
I think that the housing affordability problem in Australia can be fixed by doing the following:
- get rid of urban growth boundaries to allow the supply of land to keep up with demand;
- get rid of building height restrictions to allow the supply of accommodation to quickly adjust in high-demand suburbs;
- spread out commercial and industrial zones all over the city or, alternatively, get rid of zoning rules completely; and
- get rid of transaction taxes like stamp duty to allow people to move around to locations that suit them.
There simply is no getting around the fact that the bulk of the increase in housing demand came from existing homeowners seeking "upgrades" to better houses at better addresses in well located suburbs, not for new homes in new suburbs further from town. So even if State and local governments had released new housing land much more aggressively on the periphery – and "fixed the fringes" - increased demand for well-located homes still would have been unsatisfied at the old home-price level, and most of Australia's housing-affordability problem still would be staring us in the face.In other words, houses out in the fringes are quite cheap. The problem is that nobody wants them. The housing unaffordability problem in Australia is the result of citizens wanting the government to help them buy in premium inner-city suburbs.
Some will argue that buying land in the fringes of town is inappropriate because those who lives in these houses will need to travel a long way to get to the city. Even if houses are cheap in the outer suburbs, traveling back and forth to the city all the time to get to work will waste a lot of time and petrol. The solution to this problem is simple. When government releases land in the fringes of town, don't just zone them residential but also zone them commercial or industrial. This will allow businesses to build offices in the outer suburbs, providing jobs to nearby citizens.
I think that the housing affordability problem in Australia can be fixed by doing the following:
- get rid of urban growth boundaries to allow the supply of land to keep up with demand;
- get rid of building height restrictions to allow the supply of accommodation to quickly adjust in high-demand suburbs;
- spread out commercial and industrial zones all over the city or, alternatively, get rid of zoning rules completely; and
- get rid of transaction taxes like stamp duty to allow people to move around to locations that suit them.
27 June 2009
Why Slash Land Tax?
There is an article in The Age called Pressure to Slash Land Tax. It claims that land tax is too high and there is pressure to cut it, especially now when property prices are starting to fall.
On the State Revenue Office website there is a website that lists the 2009 land tax rates. Land tax is not a fixed amount you pay all the time. The amount you pay on land tax depends on the value of your property. If your property goes up in value, you pay more. If your property goes down in value, you pay less. Hence the requirement to slash land tax simply because property prices are falling makes little sense because land tax goes down as property prices fall.
On the State Revenue Office website there is a website that lists the 2009 land tax rates. Land tax is not a fixed amount you pay all the time. The amount you pay on land tax depends on the value of your property. If your property goes up in value, you pay more. If your property goes down in value, you pay less. Hence the requirement to slash land tax simply because property prices are falling makes little sense because land tax goes down as property prices fall.
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