Simplistic notions of tax reform are flawed

Graham White (University of Sydney) writes in The Conversation that the Treasurer's call for tax cuts to fuel growth is a flawed argument. While income tax reform may well be a noble policy objective, the Treasurer's simplistic notion of tax cuts, and how to fund them, reveals more about his conservative dogma than does it boost his reform credentials.

Is Australia really over-reliant on income taxes?

Writing in The Conversation, Ian McAuley (University of Canberra) challenges the Treasurer's opinion that Australia is over-reliant on income tax. While the author's analysis and key points are generally sound, and the Treasurer's analysis is shown to be too simplistic, readers should also be aware that Australia does have a unique private superannuation based retirement-incomes policy whereas most other countries fund a public system through income taxes (but the Treasurer doesn't use this point to reinforce his argument) - this is just one example of why international comparisons of taxation are fraught.

Turnbull’s plan to speed up the delivery of Australia’s broadband network

Writing in The Conversation, Michael de Percy (Senior Lecturer in Political Science at University of Canberra) takes stock of Australia's progress in rolling out a modern broadband network, and locates Australia's performance in the context of the experiences of other OECD countries. He concludes that government control of the market has been stifling the industry. In particular, the contrast is stark with the mobile broadband market (where governments haven't meddled) - Australia is a world leader in mobile broadband and yet its broadband network is lagging well behind the leaders.

Spot the difference: Labor vs the Coalition on asylum seekers

Writing in The Conversation, Emily Darling and Sara Davies (Queensland University of Technology) explain the few areas of difference between the Coalition and Opposition policies on asylum seekers.

Refugee fact sheets from the UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law

The University of NSW Kaldor Centre for Internaltional Refugee Law has published some excellent fact sheets on its website, including Debunking Myths and Turning Back Boats. A summary of the fact sheets is provided here.

Reforming federalism in Australia

Cheryl Saunders (Laureate Professor, Melbourne Law School at University of Melbourne) writes in The Conversation that the Australian Constitution sets up the framework for federal democracy surprisingly well, at the level of principle. But when governments pool their authority, horizontally or vertically, as in federations they sometimes need to do, the additional challenge of federal democracy is to find ways of ensuring that co-operation achieves its goals without eroding democratic principle and practice.

GST reform

John Freebairn (Professor of Economics, University of Melbourne), writing in The Conversation, considers what an equitable GST reform package should look like.