In the wake of NSW’s latest ICAC hearings and the $30 million the federal government paid for land worth $3 million near Sydney’s new airport, the New Daily’s Michael Pascoe has called for a 75% betterment tax to ensure the Australian public, not property barons, receive the lion’s share of benefits from property rezoning decisions:
Our state and local governments are captives of Australia’s biggest honeypot, a honeypot of their own creation that inevitably attracts flies…
The $11 billion estimate comes from economist Cameron Murray. It is how much he reckons well-connected, lobbyist-hiring developers make each year from rezoning and planning decisions compared with the Australian Capital Territory’s system of taxing such profits.
