Australian Reformers
Some Australian politicians, again across the political spectrum, have recognised the virtues of site rental for public finances and have been strong advocates. Others have grudgingly admitted the advantages but lack the political courage to do anything about it...
I do not deny that all taxes, with the exception of those on economic rent and inherited wealth, have some [adverse] employment and economic growth effects.
John Howard, Liberal, Prime Minister of Australia
"It is better to pay a small amount of land tax (rent) on your block of land than to pay a large amount in income tax and indirect taxation."
Clyde Cameron AM, Australian Labor Party, Federal Minister (1972-1975)
"The whole of the people have the right to the ownership of land and the right to share in the value of land itself, though not to share in the fruits of land which properly belong to the individuals by whose labour they are produced."
Alfred Dealkin, Liberal, Australian Prime Minister (1903-1904, 1905-1908, 1909-1910)
"We of the Australian Labor Party have always believed that the land is the patrimony of the people and that nobody has a complete and absolute title to it. ...The land belongs to the people, and its use must be safeguarded and protected at all times ...
"We have always believed in the land tax, and when happy days come again we shall restore the measure imposing the tax to the statute book of this country."
Arthur Calwell, Leader, Australian Labor Party, Hansard, Vol 221, pp 165-170 passim
"Around the world the demand for land rights becomes ever more strident. The possibility of eventual confrontation between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' on the land question awaits only an awakening by the landless masses to the enormity of the crime involved in the denial of what must be surely the most basic of human rights to share equitably in the bounty of the earth"
Sir Allen Fairhall, Liberal, Federal MP 1949-1969 and Minister in Menzies, Holt, McEwen, and Gorton governments.
"Was ever so simple a remedy offered to a sick world? Cease imposing taxation on anything that is the result of human effort, and collect your public revenue by taking the only element of value that remains, i.e., the rent of land - then expect to see poverty disappear and an equitable distribution of wealth established. Such in brief is the message of him in whom the force of a powerful intellect was joined to fervid passions."
Edward John Craigie, Independent, SA MP (1930-1941)
