Robert Carling is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies. Robert is researching and writing about fiscal policy, taxation and federalism. Some of Robert’s recent publications include Fiscal Shock and Awe in the United States, Are We All Keynesians Again? and Fiscal Rules for Limited Government: Reforming Australia’s Fiscal Responsibility Legislation with Stephen Kirchner.
Prior to joining the CIS, Robert was Executive Director, Economic and Fiscal at the New South Wales Treasury from 1998 to 2006. Previous position have been with Commonwealth Treasury, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He holds academic qualifications in economics and finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Georgetown University and the University of Queensland.
Posted: 8:00 am on 13th May 2012
It is just a little more than two years since the review of Australia’s Future Tax System (AFTS, better known as the Henry review) was released to the public, with its 138 recommendations. The Gillard government, notwithstanding its enthusiastic embrace of an audacious 40% resources super profits tax at that time, was lukewarm about the Henry package as a whole. Eager to burnish its economic reform credentials, the government now…
Posted: 3:38 pm on 9th May 2012
Forget about the ‘return to surplus’ – or more accurately, given the size of the said surplus, the ‘return to a balanced budget’. The really big story about this budget is how it enlarges the welfare state, mainly at the expense of higher income households and the corporate sector. No doubt Swan is happy for it to be described that way, but his policies will damage the economy and longer…
Posted: 9:36 am on 7th May 2012
Although the contents of the 2012 Budget are unknown at the time of writing, we have been led to expect that one revenue-raising measure will be a doubling of the concessional rate of tax from 15% to 30% on superannuation contributions by individuals earning $300,000 or more. These comprise the top 1% or so of income tax payers. It is ironic that this latest fiscal mugging of high income earners…
Posted: 8:00 am on 2nd May 2012
The global financial crisis, whatever its causes, has undoubtedly resulted in massive economic costs in the form of foregone output. The financial and regulatory reforms discussed above are intended to make crises less likely in the future and less severe when they do happen. This is a worthy goal, but it needs to be tempered by realism. As RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said, ‘Finance has its own cycle—of risk appetite,…
Posted: 8:00 am on 23rd April 2012
An idea winning some popularity around the world is that candidates for high political office should be required, either by law or by peer pressure, to disclose their latest tax returns. Such disclosure has long been a ritual of US presidential election campaigns; it is the practice in some other countries; and recently British politicians have come under pressure to follow suit. Prime Minister David Cameron has already conceded the…
