Policy Monographs
Policy Monographs (PM) are pieces directly commenting on government policy, new programs or legislation.
Categories
Compulsory Super at 20: ‘Libertarian Paternalism’ Without the Libertarianism
Examines the economic case for compulsory superannuation contributions and questions whether compulsory super is the most effective way of promoting household and national saving and reducing future demands... Read More
Future Funds or Future Eaters? The Case Against a Sovereign Wealth Fund for Australia
This paper considers the arguments for and against greater use of a sovereign wealth fund in Australia. It argues that the existing Future Fund is unnecessary and that greater use of a sovereign wealth... Read More
Australia’s Angry Mayors: How Population Growth Frustrates Local Councils
To understand the effects of a growing population on Australia’s councils, CIS surveyed local authorities from all over the country. The results are alarming. The level of frustration with inadequate... Read More
Why Does Government Grow?
This paper examines some of the stylised facts in relation to the growth of government in the Western world generally, and Australia in particular. It then reviews some of the main theories advanced to... Read More
The Unfinished Business of Australian Income Tax Reform
Robert Carling says the reform agenda for personal income tax should be to cut marginal tax rates; implement automatic indexation of thresholds for inflation; scale back the myriad selective tax breaks... Read More
Reforming Capital Gains Tax: The Myths and Reality behind Australia’s Most Misunderstood Tax
The implications of the Ralph Capital Gains Tax (CGT) reforms vary widely depending on the type of taxpayer, asset class, and inflation environment. This report examines the CGT and considers possible... Read More
Ending the Churn: A Tax/Welfare Swap
John Humphreys argues that removing middle-class welfare in exchange for income tax cuts, the government could reduce tax and welfare by about $80 billion without leaving anybody worse off. Read More
Fiscal Rules for Limited Government: Reforming Australia’s Fiscal Responsibility Legislation
The paper outlines the rationale for fiscal responsibility legislation and a rules-based approach to fiscal policy. It examines the shortcomings of the existing CBH, showing how it has failed to prevent... Read More
The Faulty Arguments Behind Australia’s Corporate Tax
This paper investigates Australian corporate tax and highlights a number of issues that deserve greater public awareness. Read More
The Faulty Arguments Behind Australia's Corporate Tax
In Australia, the primary function of taxation is to finance government spending. Its secondaryobjectives relate to influencing social and economic outcomes, resource allocation, consumptionpatterns, the... Read More
State Tax Reform: Progress and Prospects
This paper analyses the state taxation issues in further detail. After reviewing various reform options, it outlines the key features of what a much improved state tax system would look like. Read More
Fiscal Illusion: How Big Government Makes Tax Look Small
Sinclair Davidson in this paper canvasses an issue that cuts across all taxes and all levels of government: fiscal illusion and how it contributes to the growth of the state. Exposing the policies and... Read More
Exploring a Carbon Tax for Australia
It is not a foregone conclusion that we need a carbon trading scheme or a carbon tax. Humphreys provides much food for thought on the nature of the optimal policy response and how it can fit in with broader... Read More
Tax Competition: Much To Do About Very Little
Sinclair Davidson challenges the notion of ‘harmful’ international tax competition. He argues that in the sphere of taxation, as elsewhere, competition should be welcomed as a force for good, not stifled... Read More
Tax Earmarking Is It Good Practice?
This Monograph critically analyses the use of earmarked (or ‘hypothecated’) taxes in Australia. Read More
The Government Giveth and the Government Taketh Away: Tax Welfare Churning and the Case for Welfare State Opt-Outs
Australians are more prosperous than ever before, so the number of people needing government assistance should be falling. Yet the welfare state keeps getting bigger. The book explores this paradox. It... Read More
State Taxation and Fiscal Federalism: A Blueprint for Further Reform
This paper identifies major structural flaws in our current taxation system and develops a set of radical proposals to put them right. The flaws it identifies lie in the fiscal relation between the Commonwealth... Read More
Reform 30/30: Rebuilding Australia’s Tax and Welfare Systems
John Humphreys has a vision of how the tax and welfare systems could be refashioned to break through the dispiriting problems that currently bedevil them. It is for those who reject this vision to put... Read More
Are There Any Good Arguments Against Cutting Income Taxes?
Sinclair Davidson explains why, in a sharply ‘progressive’ tax system like ours, tax cuts that appear to favour high earners more than low earners are not only ‘fair’ but are to a large extent... Read More
The Costs of Taxation
The question the government needs to ask is not whether it can do good through more spending, but is whether the relentless increase in the personal tax burden needed to finance all this spending is costing... Read More
How Highly Taxed Are We? The Level and Composition of Taxation in Australia and the OECD
Rather than establishing the case for even higher taxes on earnings, a careful analysis of OECD statistics shows what many Australian workers and businesses have long suspected; we are being squeezed much... Read More
The Very Idea of a Flat Tax
Lauchlan Chipman questions a key principle that has long been embedded in our system of taxation and which most Australians probably accept as being self-evidently the ‘best’ and ‘fairest’ way... Read More
Will You Still Vote for Me in the Morning? Why Politicians Aren’t Rushing to Increase Taxes
Norton’s review of the evidence does not indicate the existence of a population keen to pay more tax. The politicians know this, which is why the Coalition delivered limited tax cuts (as well as a lot... Read More
Who Pays the Lion’s Share of Personal Income Tax?
Davidson’s paper performs a service by exposing the absurdities of some of the claims that are being made about who pays what. Higher income earners are paying much more than their ‘fair share’ in... Read More
Tax Reform to Make Work Pay
We are paying more tax than ever before. Australia’s tax burden is higher than in the United States and Japan, taxes on incomes are as high as in many European countries, and corporate taxation is higher... Read More
The Taxation of Shared Family Incomes
Terry Dwyer’s paper makes a compelling case for recognising family income sharing for tax purposes, and his arguments and proposals should be central to any future discussion of how to achieve a fairer... Read More
The Tax Wilderness How to Restore the Rule of Law
The importance of Geoffrey Walker’s paper is that it shows the price we are paying as a nation for government’s failure to keep its tax demands within reasonable bounds. It is bad enough that escalating... Read More
Poverty in Australia: Beyond the Rhetoric
This report challenges prevailing definitions and measurements of poverty, and calls for an alternative strategy for poverty alleviation based on American-style welfare reform, lower taxation and job creation. Read More
Taxing the family : Australia's forgotten people in the income spectrum
Over the last two decades, the tax burden has shifted from taxpayers without to taxpayers with dependent children. While social security expenditure on welfare dependency has risen, spending on family... Read More
Behavioural Poverty
The welfare debate is bedeviled by the failure to distinguish behavioural from financial poverty. The minimum income available to families on welfare are commensurate with those of families on average... Read More
The Resource Rent Tax. A Penality of Risk Taking
We see no evidence that the Australian resources industries are not competitive. Therefore if the RRT were a true resources rent tax, with the Government subsidising negative economic rents as well as... Read More
Lessons from the Ord
The Ord Scheme, indeed, offers ample ammunition for those who take the extreme view that responsibility is directly proportional to the taxing power. Certainly even those who hold a less extreme position... Read More
