Our research is hitting the mark

Dear ,

Before I tell you about our latest research, I just want to remind you that the launch of Australia's Defence is tomorrow night at Euro, 181 Mary Street, Brisbane. To book please click here.

So that's the good news. The not so good news is that there is a general mood in Australia to increase taxes. What is worse, a lot of Australians are also prepared to pay a higher tax rate themselves.

This is the finding of our last What the people want survey. The findings were covered in the Courier Mail with a double page spread. We've also posted a short opinion piece covering the salient points, and you can download the whole report by clicking here.

Please don't blame me for the results. We are committed to lowering tax rates in Australia, but it helps in a campaign to have a realistic idea of the challenges that you face.

On the subject of lower taxes (actually, stopping a potential tax hike) we have been pursuing the ALP's proposal to limit negative gearing to new housing and increase the capital gains rate.

This issue appears to be  blowing up in their face. The Australian revealed today that while Chris Bowen dismissed modelling by BIS Shrapnel a month ago as the work of vested interests, his office actually knew it was commissioned by a Sydney suburban accounting firm Biongiorno and Partners.

The analysis "found limiting negative gearing to new houses could lead to lower house prices, rent rises of up to 10 per cent, cost the budget more than it saved and cause unemployment to rise...".

We have been pursuing similar themes and asking Chris Bowen to reveal Labor's modelling of this policy. The policy has been "costed" by the Parliamentary Budget Office, but this is an arithmetical exercise only and does not look at the assumptions underlying the model.

The articles we have written on this subject are:

• Kohler’s mistakes underline why negative gearing is threatened
• Shorten in policy disarray on housing affordability and negative gearing
• ALP would make Australia the second most expensive OECD country for Capital Gains Tax
• Negative gearing policy channels mining tax debacle

Please comment on these articles, and share them on Twitter and Facebook. And if you would like to contribute articles to the news section of our site, please send me an email. We also publish On Line Opinion, which is an open platform where we and others of  different views can engage in intellectual debate, and contributions for that are welcome as well.

Hope to see you tomorrow night.

Kind regards,