Company tax cuts are not a knight in shining armour to save the Australian economy

John Daley and Brendan Coates of the Grattan Institute (writing in The Conversation) demonstrate that the Government's signature company tax reduction policy reduces Australia's income over the short term, has a very small (almost negligible) positive impact over 25 years, and that foreigners are the overwhelming beneficiaries of the policy at the expense of Australians. None of this should be a surprise to anyone who understands how Australia's company tax system works—clearly the Government doesn't, otherwise it would have realised there are much more important reforms to focus on.

Good reform of housing taxation should encapsulate the full spectrum of housing market distortions

Danika Wright (University of Sydney) provides an excellent overview of negative gearing in The Conversation and argues that it should not be analysed in isolation from capital gains and other special treatments of housing, such as stamp duty, land taxes and first-home-buyer exemptions.