Tax incentives for the so-called rich

Watching Q&A last night was interesting and instructive, not least because Nicola Roxon was allowed to dominate. Still I won't wax lyrical about the bias of the ABC, well not tonight anyway.

What did intrigue me was a question from the audience that obviously wanted support for the view that tax incentives for the so-called rich should not be allowed. There was of a defense put up by Greg Hunt, not surprisingly and and an allusion to public monies for private education as well. Basically the argument runs that public support for private health and education nurtures a mixed system, reduces the burden on state health and education and promotes choice. With people availing themselves of private services (whether they are deemed to be rich or not) there is more money to be spent on those who must use or those that choose the state provided services.

Tim Wilson of the Institute of Public Policy, to his credit, argued a more philosophically pure view that all subsidies are bad, are likely to produce a skewing of resources, distort the system and thus produce poorer outcomes.

However Tim also skated across another key point. Whether it be private health or private education the relative rich have a claim on some proportion of the tax spend as they themselves pay more tax. Thus these people not only contribute more they can frequently also consume less of what the state provides to the obvious benefit of those who pay less tax but consume more of the state provided services. Thus some minimal subsidy can be justified if it promotes a lessening of demand on government and is thus a discouragement to avoid tax.

There was no time and probably even less appetite but these arguments logically lead onto the justification or otherwise of so-called "progressive" taxation, the system where the more you earn not only does one pay more in actual dollars but also a higher percentage of gross income. This is a sacred cow of our polity and hardly ever argued these days. I flag this issue tonight and will address it in my next posting. Any of your comments or thoughts will be readily received.

Best regards, Jonathan.

Eye on the impending UK election

I am keeping a reasonable eye on the impending UK election and though the country is in a parlous state the polls are indicating the narrowest of Conservative victories or a hung parliament and the prospect of minority government. If you thought Sterling was weak already (and it certainly is) just wait till that happens. Please, no! No good for anyone. The country literally cannot afford more of the same especially with having the highest public debt ever in peace time and needing to borrow Sterling 600 million PER DAY! Yikes! Only radical action and a new direction and indeed some real pain can start to turn things around.

The UK and its woes can be analogous to us all. As Tom Haupt writes in his book, “Time-Out, Winning Strategies for Playing a Bigger Game in Life” we conspire with our core beliefs to protect our ego and to ensure that, in our view, we are always right; this only reinforces our retreat to our comfort zones precluding the ability to positively change and indeed to start to turn things round. It is some of our core and inappropriate core beliefs that need to be challenged and reprogrammed. I am only part way through the book and am finding it both confronting and liberating and I heartily recommend it to any that needs to live-in-the- now, to get off auto-pilot and be “conscious” for the benefit of their future.

Tom also believes that every time we retreat to our comfort zones we actually contract its boundaries and that only when we take risks and feel very vulnerable and uncomfortable are we actually approaching our goals. I’ll be stepping outside my own comfort zone quite significantly a number of times this week and I’ll let you know how it goes.

And now for something completely different….my family and I are going down to Cottesloe this afternoon to have a look at the “Sculptures by the Sea” which is a fabulous addition to the Perth calendar and indicative of what can be done with a space which normally has a distinctly different use and attraction. One plus one equals three. Naturally the children will have a swim and we are taking a salad to combine with the local fish and chips to enjoy a late summer/early autumn evening by the ocean. How good is that?!

Best regards, Jonathan.

Honorary Consuls

Last Wednesday I have the privilege to attend the induction of WA's new Consul to the Kingdom of The Netherlands down at the Shipwreck Museum in Fremantle. A perfect location given the histoirical connections and shared hertiage and the host for the evening was the Ambassador to Australia though he is travelling in his private capacity, something about credentials not yet presented. The sizable Dutch population was well-represented and I think I head more Dutch spoken there than I did when last in Amsterdam. The great and good were in respectable numbers and the collection of Honarary Consuls was impressive. As a venue it is interesting, intimate and with good accoustics is well able to take a fair number of people whilst not creating a hubbub precluding comfortable conversation. A great evening and well done Arnold Stroobach.

I was a little shocked to hear from a number of locals that they had never been to the Museum but then again I know more of the UK than many of its born amd bred residients and not every Brit has seen the Mary Rose or visited the Victory.

One feature of my business that was apparent that evening and even the next morning at a Club breakfast is the lack of underatanding of lobbyists and lobbying, not doubt beacuse of the poor reputations of a couple of infamous Western Australians but like all service industries there are more good people in the game than not, that much useful and productive work is done and in terms of making a differece it can be a significant community service. Lobbyists are most needed when governments are either brand new or dysfunctional but even on a day-to-day basis there are many incidences of the community, both private and business, needing to alert their government of certain issues, problems and opportunities. Governmemt is so complex these days that many external services are required, whether they be of the direct provision of service variety and consulting or specific one-off contacts. Finding the right people to speak to can be daunting and can involve much wasted time. "Who ya goin to call?"

The Sandgroper has written lately of some of the asects of doing business in Western Australia. I have an absolute beauty to share with people but dare not "blog it." Let's know if you'd like to hear the story.

All teh best, Jonathan.