Visits, Politics, Gaming

[tcpip]

It has become a bit of a tradition on Saturday to invite a couple of people over to Willsmere for a lunch, a good walk of the grounds and a yarn; this weekend was Lyle and kremmen. With the latter there was some discussion on the Resource Super Profits Tax. In the course of the discussion it was evident I was taking an economics perspective (productivity is everything) and he was taking an investors perspective (return is everything). As an attempt to appeal from the former to the latter, I suggested (indeed, it is almost certain) that the return to mining company investors will actually be greater with the introduction of the RSPT but their proportion of their profits from resources will be less. That night went to a Labor Party quiz night and spent some time with Kew branch members; this Tuesday I am giving a presentation to them on the Henry Review.

Another issue of the Isocracy Newsletter has been released with an very interesting article on the global economic situation from Northeastern Federation Of Anarchist Communists. The Israeli attack on the humanitarian flotilla in international waters has received widespread condemnation; the initiator of the programme is a contributor to Isocracy. Good feedback still being received for the Isocracy AGM on June 12; I now have a contact in India who is interested in the project.

Great game of D&D last Monday night with a very nice combination of plot development and mythology. Swordbearer PBeM is pretty much underway with last touches of character generation for the stragglers coming in. With the GURPS Krononauts game cancelled today, we're all looking forward to a game of Britannia (which has some very clever features), and hopefully (once again) Quirks, if there is sufficient time.

Comments

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

You may be quite right that an RSPT could work to the benefit of all. The main doubts I have result from the vagueness and confusion amongst those implementing it.

A roof insulation programme is a superb idea and very simple, yet they even cocked that up. (And instead of fixing the problems, they just gave up on it!) Then there's the NBN, internet censorship, or any of the other new things the current government is trying to royally screw up. Allowing lots of foreign visitors to buy houses here to prop up housing prices during the GFC, with the result that we have grossly inflated prices now. Pretty much every new idea this government has had after their first 6 months in power has either been stupid or stupidly implemented. I wouldn't trust any of them to competently perform any activity which is harder than using a photocopier, let alone implement a significant taxation policy.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, the implementation (as linked: http://www.futuretax.gov.au/documents/attachments/Announcement_document.pdf) is fairly well documented.

As for other issues: (a) the people who really cocked up the roof insulation programme are the installers - they should prosecuted with aggressive vigour (b) the Internet filter is driven by conservatives both within and outside the government and I suspect the Opposition's silence on the matter is tacit agreement.

The idea of foreigner's purchasing houses and receiving capital-gains exemptions is hardly new; indeed it's been the case for decades. Indeed the government ought to be congratulated for taking action on this issue. I am not sure how you make the claim that this increases housing prices however. Do you mean land price?

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

It's pretty obvious that a nation-wide scheme to provide roof insulation would require oversight. That is what failed. You can't expand an industry in a massive way and give people a blank cheque and not expect rorting to be rife.

Reinstating the restrictions on foreign property investment that they scrapped in 2008 is a good thing, but congratulation? ... That's rather like congratulating a mugger when he stops plunging the knife into your chest. By housing price, I mean the price of a residential property. Allowing groups of people to buy who couldn't previously (e.g. temporary residents) can only increase prices. Same supply, greater demand. There were many minor changes, including the abolition of the $300,000 limit on foreign students' homes, all of which were likely to put upward pressure on property prices. Unfortunately, nobody appears to have concrete figures on the effects. Some real estate agents here had opened offices in Asia specifically to cater to foreign buyers, while others say temporary residents make up only 1-2% of their sales.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

It is a myth however that there was no oversight. Over one million homes were insulated under the scheme. Of that 86 have been linked with fires. Compared with any other industrial process, you have to admit that's not a bad result. The total number of approved suppliers was over 7300; twenty were removed for failure to comply with its terms.

As for the foreign property issue, I was referring to the general rather than the specific. Indeed, they were introduced to improve housing supply. Of course, there is not a political party in the country that explicitly notes - or seems to understand - the difference between land and housing, so the results are not surprising.