Taxing the family home
Michael is joined by Dr Peter van Onselen, Contributing Editor at The Australian / Professor of politics & public policy at the University of Western Australia, to discuss his book ‘Who Dares Loses: Pariah Policies’ that examines in part the taxing of the family home.
Mr van Onselen writes, ‘At the centre of one of Australia’s most sacred myths is the family home. It represents security, continuity and the ability of the Australian economy to provide a middle-class lifestyle to millions.’
‘The debate over housing affordability is hampered by two related issues, the first of which gets in the way of sensible discussion of any type of tax reform. The Liberal Party’s sacred cow is that it is a party of low tax. But taxes have to pay for spending sooner or later.’
‘The second policy constraint when it comes to the family home is that politicians have no intention of making housing affordable in the most straightforward sense — allowing prices to fall via any combination of supply- or demand-side measures.’
‘There is simply too much in the way of politics tied up in housing loopholes for governments to allow the redistribution of wealth that a sustained fall in housing prices might lead to.’
Who Dares Loses: Pariah Policies by Wayne Errington and Peter van Onselen was released on August 1 as part of Monash University Publishing’s In the National Interest series.
Download this podcast here