Wouldn’t it be funny if we spent so long arguing about what to do about climate change that we ran out of cheap oil first? No, it wouldn’t really, it would be catastrophic. But given the government’s delay in producing an Energy White Paper and the steady backsliding on the need to actually reduce our

There are strong equity and efficiency arguments for taxing all income from capital at the same rate; the current concessions are wrong in principle and regressive in practice. The focus should be on why the wealthy enjoy the unique privilege of having a sizeable part of their real income taxed at half the normal rate.

Superannuation is the most concessionally-taxed investment in Australia with contributions, fund earnings and payouts all receiving concessional treatment. According to Treasury, the effective marginal tax rate on superannuation savings is highly negative. This paper discusses how superannuation could be reformed to make it more equitable.