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The Georgist Registry Global Report: Australia / New Zealand
THE GEORGIST COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA;
TAX REFORM AUSTRALIA; and
THE ASSOCIATION FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT
Geoff Forster, Secretary
31 Hardware Street
Melbourne 3000, Australia
The Georgist Council of Australia (the umbrella organization for the Henry George groups in most capital cities of Australia) organized and held the International Conference for the International Union for Land Value Taxation and Free Trade in September, 1994, in Melbourne. Ten nationalities were represented as were all Australian states. Keynote speakers included Dr. Mason Gaffney of California, Morris Williams, President of Tax Reform Australia (for 15 years a member of the Victoria Legislative Assembly) Ian Baker, a front-bencher in Victoria's State Parliament and a leader of the minority Party, Justice Rae Else Mitchell, Brisbane Planner Philip Day, Richard Giles, Geoff Forster and New Zealand's leading Georgist, Robert Keall of Auckland.
Plans in Progress for an Australian/New Zealand National Journal
The New South Wales (Sydney body) puts out its bi-monthly Good Government and in alternate months the Melbourne body puts out its monthly Progress. The Georgist Quarterly is produced in Sydney. Plans are being made for a national journal.
Melbourne has a full-time promotional organizer, Phillip Anderson, who has participated in a number of festivals and contacted many other organizations.
Classes are held in various centers and public meetings are held, particularly in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. A Melbourne teacher, George Charles has been particularly successful and his material has been issued as a book -- Inadequate Public Collection of Rental Value of Land.
In both Australia and New Zealand, there is extensive land value taxation at the local level, but the percentage of the annual site tax remains low. The various states in Australia also have site value taxes, in varying amounts.
In both Melbourne and Australia, serious campaigns by the opposition have been conducted to whittle down or do away with the site value taxation already achieved, and much effort must be directed toward retaining what has been achieved.
In the coming year, the strategies that have been employed will be augmented -- submissions to inquiries, addressing meetings, preparation and distribution of suitable literature, liaison with other groups (political parties, green groups, church social justice groups), but, in addition, more radical tactics are also being considered.
OTHER GEORGIST ORGANIZATIONS IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND:
For current information about the following Georgist associations, write to Geoff Forster, Georgist Council of Australia at the address shown above. The Council acts as a coordinating body for these associations.
- Association for Good Government, Redfern;
- Georgist Education Association, South Perth;
- Henry George League, Kimba;
- Henry George League, Hobart;
- Site Revenue Society, Upper Coomera, Queensland;
- Australian School of Social Science, Enfield New South Wales;
- Henry George League, So. Australian Div. Inc. Norwood;
- Resource Rentals for Revenue Assn., Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand;
- Henry George League, Brooklyn, Wellington, New Zealand.
http://www.earthrights.net/docs/gr_aust_nz.html