Housing Debate:Is our System Broken?, Albo's Empty Gas Promise, & The Knock Off Tour Recap + I Spent $8,000 On Free Beer To Prove Australia's Gas Tax Is A Scam + THE PUNTERS LOBBYIST
Housing Debate:Is our System Broken?, Albo's Empty Gas Promise, & The Knock Off Tour Recap
THEY DISCUSS: Across a sometimes-heated Puntermon battle, economist Richard Denniss (Australia Institute) and property investor Jack Henderson went head-to-head on whether Australia's housing system is genuinely broken.
THEY AGREE ON: To their credit, both found a few patches of common ground. Both agree the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount was a radical change when Peter Costello introduced it – they just disagree on whether it's worked. And both agree supply constraints are part of the problem, even if they blame different things (planning red tape vs land banking).
THEY DISAGREE ON: Richard says housing is broken for anyone who doesn't already own two or more properties. Jack disagrees – cities like Sydney are meant to be expensive, and regional areas are still affordable. On CGT, Richard argues scrapping the 50 per cent discount would lower prices and save $10bn a year. Jack says rich investors structure around it anyway, and it won't fix supply. And on land tax? Richard says it forces development. Jack says the cost just gets passed to the buyer. Same data, two completely different worlds.
Puntermon Citations from Jack and Richard
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I Spent $8,000 On Free Beer To Prove Australia's Gas Tax Is A Scam
THE SCAM: You are paying more tax beer than foreign-owned gas companies pay on the billions of dollars of Australian gas they ship overseas. Norway taxed their resources and built a $3 trillion wealth fund. We're a trillion dollars in debt. Politicians from both major parties roll out gas lobby talking points.
THE DAMAGE: The result is punters are told there's "no money" for housing or energy relief, while billions in resource wealth disappears overseas. We're doing all the heavy lifting. The gas bludgers are doing sweet FA.
THE COVER-UP/OUTCOME: Konrad celebrates the Aussie heros sinking a cols one and paying tax, by shouting free beers for everyone. An $8,000 knock-off tour through Newcastle, handing out beers to any punter paying more tax than a gas cartel. Because if the politicians won't name the scam, someone has to.
THE PUNTERS LOBBYIST
THE MISSION: The Punters Top 5 Policies, starting with getting our Gas Taxed.
THE UPDATE: The Tax Gas Not Beer knock-off tour through Newcastle was a roaring success, with punters flooding in from as far as Sydney to sink a cold one and celebrate paying more tax than the gas cartels. The campaign racked up free beer tabs from Grifter, Bridge Road Brewers and Heaps Normal, while Konrad and mates on e-bikes rolled from pub to pub proving that when politicians won't name the scam, the people will.
The war chest is growing! The donations now sit at $119,844.30 with spending to date on lobbying and PR of $10,652.40 means the War Chest is sitting at $109,191.90. Gas didn't get taxed, but we will continue pushing the issue until it does. The next plan... Sky Writing?