This Month
- Opinion
- Tax reform
Time to walk the tax reform talk
The High Court’s rejection of Victoria’s road tax and its threat to states’ revenue puts pressure on the federal government to step into the reform breach.
- Michelle de Niese
September
Ken Henry too ‘boffinish’, CEOs overpaid, says Ross Garnaut
“[Henry] came up with an approach to rent that was theoretically elegant, but no one understood it. And he hadn’t talked to me beforehand.”
- Michael Bleby
August
- Opinion
- Canberra Observed
Ken Henry has a dire warning on this forgotten issue
Ken Henry’s environmental warnings are arguably more dire, more imminent, more urgent, more troublesome and a great deal less hypothetical than the need to address a gradually shifting tax base.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Income tax
The penny has finally dropped on income tax burden
There are at least three achievable ways to alleviate the intergenerational inequities in the tax system to take pressure off workers and not harm economic growth.
- John Kehoe
Reliance on income tax an ‘intergenerational tragedy’: Ken Henry
The ex-Treasury boss says the dependence on personal tax is highly unfair on the young, and company taxes need to be cut to boost Australia’s competitiveness.
- Michael Read
Energy transition to ‘reshape bank balance sheets’: Ken Henry
In an Australian Conservation Foundation report scoring the big banks on net-zero targets, the former NAB chairman said lenders should not be passive actors.
- James Eyers
May
- Opinion
- Property market
The housing and migration debate misses one big failure
Unless major policy changes are made to housing supply, people will feel the strains of a larger population and not share in the economic benefits.
- John Kehoe
Liberals might need to dissolve coalition with Nationals, warns Ken Henry
Former treasury secretary says the party should ignore Australia’s extremist fringes and focus instead on winning mainstream votes from the centre.
- Gus McCubbing
April
Helen Rosamond’s fate to be decided in two months
Helen Rosamond is accused of defrauding NAB millions of dollars by allegedly sending falsified and inflated invoices; Greens leader Adam Bant claims renters are leaving the major parties’ right under their noses. How the day unfolded.
- Updated
- Gus McCubbing and Campbell Kwan
March
- Opinion
- Federal budget
Australia needs a moment of truth on tax and budgets
National politics might be ready for a conversation on taxation and spending that could dwarf even that of the 1980s.
- Laura Tingle
Decaying tax base a major concern for Australia, Spender warns
The teal independent MP hosted a tax roundtable in Canberra, kick-starting a major project on proposals for structural reforms to the system.
- Tom McIlroy
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Bank shocks and strategy rows are the new normal
This week’s big stories are from the new world of inflationary turbulence and geopolitical rivalry.
- The AFR View
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Henry blows whistle on Australia’s tax reform slumber
The former Treasury secretary has just done the useful job of putting a better tax system, which might be the driving force for other reforms, back on the table.
- The AFR View
Henry warns of tax jump ‘by stealth’ in not indexing $3m super cap
The former Treasury boss also says the recommendations he made for reforming tax in the super system in his 2010 review were the best option.
- Hannah Wootton
Tax system ‘fails every test’, says Ken Henry
The federal-state tax system undermines economic growth and fairness to younger people, says the former Treasury boss, lamenting the lack of ‘big bang’ tax reform.
- John Kehoe and Hannah Wootton
May 2022
Australia needs super profits tax on oil, gas: Henry
The architect of Australia’s scrapped super profits tax says Britain’s decision to tax fossil fuel companies helps households deal with the energy shock.
- Jacob Greber
Budget $80b worse due to weak productivity: Ken Henry
Reducing the budget deficit can help the Reserve Bank of Australia manage inflation pressures, but the nation’s poor productivity performance is a bigger issue, says former Treasury boss Ken Henry.
- John Kehoe
Regulator of regulators ‘too much of a burden’: Henry
Former Treasury secretary and NAB chairman Ken Henry says the Financial Regulator Assessment Authority, recommended by the royal commission, is bad for business.
- Ayesha de Kretser
February 2022
‘No choice’: Broken taxes must be fixed
The levies slug workers too heavily, deter investment and penalise home owners relocating for jobs. Ken Henry says the election winner must reform them.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Both sides of politics should declare for tax reform
Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese must explain why they are putting political expediency before the national interest and the pro-growth solutions for Australia’s tax system problems.
- The AFR View
