From Laura Tingle at the AFR:
…If the government really wants us to be a clever country, enjoying an ideas boom and investing in innovation, you would think it would be interested in measures which normalise the investment choice between housing and other investments which remains one of the last great distortions left in our economy.
…Labor’s arguments on negative gearing and capital gains discounts go much more to this point than the Coalition’s, even if, when it released its policy last weekend, it argued its first purpose was to ” help fund health and education”.
And it is fascinating that, even though Labor’s announcement was originally framed heavily as a budget measure, it is the question of what impact it will have on the economy, and the equity considerations, that have got the most air time.
…Pollsters will tell you that focus groups watching Morrison’s speech on Wednesday took out the message the government wanted: that the times require restraint, both in terms of government spending, and in terms of pledges of radical change…Morrison is right that what voters want to know about is jobs and growth. But having argued so hard about the need for growth, is Morrison suggesting fixing bracket creep will deliver it?
Exactly. Just like Abbott and Hockey. All problems and no solutions. Over at BS, business is unhappy too:
The Committee for Economic Development of Australia says high hopes of the business community that the change in prime minister would enable a sensible debate about structural reform are fading.
“Confidence is rapidly diminishing … we need to see action match the rhetoric,” says CEDA chief executive Stephen Martin.
He is worried that the political capital that Malcolm Turnbull enjoyed after taking over is being squandered by ministerial turmoil and a reluctance to discuss wide-ranging economic reform in an election year.
As the green and white papers on tax reform have been shelved and various options taken off the table, businesses are frustrated that their proposals have been shunted aside.
“Business is seething that so much effort and energy has been expended in making submissions that have proven useless,” Martin told the launch of CEDA’s annual economic and political outlook.
It is a truly stunning mis-judgement by Tony Turnbull to repeat history by listening to the Treasury and RBA rent seekers.
As they say in US politics, don’t waste a good crisis. Labor isn’t.
