Australian clemency appeals to Indonesia hampered by hypocrisy

Amy Maguire (Lecturer in International Law at University of Newcastle) writes in The Conversation that Australia’s contrasting approaches to capital punishment and the treatment of asylum seekers raise questions about Australia's commitment to human rights and the international body of law that exists to protect these.

Inequality arises from submitting to rent-seeking, more so than unequal exposure to economic progress

Writing in The Conversation, Gigi Foster (Associate Professor, UNSW Australian Business School) and Paul Frijters (Economics Professor, University of Queensland) argue that political science may be better than economics at explaining rising income inequality.

Treasury tax paper ignores virtually every new idea in tax policy since the 1970s

John Quiggin writes (The Guardian, 31 March 2015) that the worthwhile ideas in Re:think on tax are right out of the 1975 Asprey report on taxation reform.

High youth unemployment can’t be blamed on wages

Raja Junankar (Honorary Professor at the University of NSW) has written an excellent analysis of youth unemployment. He demonstrates that there is no evidence to support the view that youth unemployment is caused by high wages or by high unemployment benefits―in fact, inadequate aggregate demand is the principal cause. 

Consequently, the policy of the Abbott government to restrict unemployment benefits to young people (under 30 years of age) for the first six months of unemployment would have serious consequences for the young; however, it doesn’t address the root cause and therefore is unlikely to achieve its objective of reducing youth unemployment. This article was originally published in The Conversation on 16 April 2015.

Explaining the GST distribution method

John Freebairn (Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne) has written a useful short note on how the GST allocation process works and the context for WA’s small share. This article was originally published in The Conversation on 17 April 2015.

The redrawn map of the Middle East is fraying at the borders

Yaroslav Trofimov (The Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2015) has written a fascinating summary of the way in which the borders of the Middle East were redrawn with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War, with implications for the modern day political conflict in the region.

Commonwealth inconsistencies in respecting State sovereignty

Alan Fenna (Professor of Politics at Curtin University) notes that the latest bout of federal interference from Commonwealth Ministers in the GST distribution debate is tantamount to bullying WA to accept the federal government’s push for privatisation of state assets―and runs counter to the Commonwealth Government’s stated policy position on respecting the sovereignty of the States. This article was originally published in The Conversation on 14 April 2015.

A more balanced critique of taxation concessions

Robert Carling (Centre of Independent Studies and formerly a Deputy Secretary in NSW Treasury) has written a very balanced critique of the purpose of taxation concessions, Right or rort? Dissecting Australia’s tax concessions, noting that many of these are actually significant structural features of the tax system which improve the effect of taxes on the efficient allocation of resources in the economy.

Extending dividend benefits to foreign investors may address competition concerns

This article by John Taylor (Professor, School of Taxation and Business Law at UNSW) is one of the more insightful considerations given to the issue of Australia's company tax. It was originally published in The Conversation.

Broader base, not a higher rate the answer for GST reform

This article by Dale Boccabella and Kathrin Bain (both from the School of Taxation and Business Law at UNSW) is on the options for GST reform (originally published in The Conversation).

The take-away message is that the first priority for reform should be to widen the GST and that this (rather than a rate increase) would be consistent with the broad thrust of tax reform over the last few decades.

The Commonwealth can change the GST without the States

This is a concise and clear article by Dale Boccabella and Kathrin Bain (both from the School of Taxation and Business Law at UNSW) on the legal effects of the GST lock-in mechanism (originally published in The Conversation). It explains why the "requirement" for the Commonwealth to gain the agreement of all the States prior to amending the GST legislation is not legally binding. Rather it is a "soft law" which only guides the behaviour of the Executive.