Subcategories

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• Education

  Education issues - pre-school through higher education

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  2 Posts

  M

  The full version of The Australian Learning Lecture document referenced above is available here.

• Health

  Primary care, hospitals, health insurance etc

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  1 Posts

  M

  The private health insurance rebate, another Howard government policy, is so ripe for reform it positively reeks.

  As a matter of principle, the government should provide universal high-quality and affordable public hospital care, including timely elective surgery with a clear health benefit. This — the promise of Medicare — is surely what most Australians want.

  There's clearly an excellent case to scrap the private health insurance rebate altogether, together with lifetime health cover and the Medicare levy surcharge.

  These measures, in driving people to take up private health insurance, do the following:

  Cost the taxpayer billions of dollars per year (the PHI rebate) Arguably do little to alleviate pressures on the public hospital system Represent an inverted government welfare measure as the biggest rebates are paid to those Australians with the most expensive policies — by definition the wealthiest amongst us Help cement a widespread (but faulty) notion that individual choice should be compensated by those unable to make the same choices or derive the same benefits

  Here's a couple of references that briefly list some of the arguments for and against the private health insurance rebate:

  The private health insurance rebate has cost taxpayers $100 billion and only benefits some. Should we scrap it?, The Conversation, 20 April 2022 Senate Select Committee Inquiry into Medicare: Medicare - healthcare or welfare?, Parliament of Australia, 30 October 2003 (full report available here)
• Taxation

  Personal income, corporate and other taxation

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  M

  The capital gains tax concession was introduced by John Howard in 1999. Its introduction has been central to the property boom that now sees houses utterly unaffordable for a great many Australians across the country.

  Why should wage and salary income be taxed at a rate greater than the lazy earnings of appreciating assets — stocks, or property, or art, or boats, or whatever?

  Work for the country and do something productive through your labour, and you're worse off than a bloke trading shares or currency from his bedroom in his pyjamas — provided said pyjama wearer holds his shares longer than a year. That is, work in a hospital, or in a school, or in a police station for your money, or for a small business servicing a community, and you're worse off than our pyjama wearer. How is that defensible?

  Why aren't all capital gains discounted for inflation, but then taxed at the full marginal tax rate for individuals? Some proposals for reform have talked about halving the discount to 25%. But that still leaves a discount in place! Surely a dollar received by a taxpayer is still a dollar, however obtained?

  The CGT concession is overwhelmingly paid to those with money to invest. In other words, the benefit derives almost exclusively to the richest. It's money gifted to the wealthy, rather than the needy — an inversion of what ought to be the case.

  How is the CGT discount defensible? Is there even a single argument in its favour?

  Arguments against it would appear to be:

  It encourages speculation, and other unproductive investment, It's fuelled the completely unsustainable boom in house prices, It comes at an enormous cost in terms of tax receipts withheld, It's completely unfair — a benefit that derives almost exclusively to the richest.

  How to remove the CGT discount? Sure, grandfather existing investments, and continue to exempt the family home. But otherwise, why not get on and eliminate it for good?