Jago Dodson

2 weeks ago | theconversation.com | Matt Garrow |Matthew Hall |Alan Morris |Hal Pawson |Jago Dodson |Liam J Davies

This federal election, both major parties have offered a “grab bag” of policy fixes for Australia’s stubborn housing affordability crisis. But there are still two big policy elephants in the room, which neither side wants to touch. The first is negative gearing. This can apply to business losses relating to any investment. But in the context of housing, it allows property investors to claim annual losses incurred renting out an investment property as deductions against their taxable income.

Dec 17, 2023 | theage.com.au | Jago Dodson

Melburnians could be forgiven some confusion at the news late last week that the construction cost of the North East Link has mushroomed to $26 billion. Another major transport project, another cost blowout in the billions of dollars. But what this pattern is starting to reveal is significant failings in our system of politics and planning, and indeed our democracy.

Nov 20, 2023 | publicaccountant.com.au | Jago Dodson

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, as Australia was recovering from recession, demands for new infrastructure funding grew. Sydney, which had been “full up” according to then NSW Premier Bob Carr and had economised on spending in the runup to the 2000 Olympics, desperately needed new infrastructure. With their budgets constrained, states began pitching projects to the federal government, but incoherently and without a national framework.

Nov 19, 2023 | econotimes.com | Jago Dodson

The federal government has just announced a list of projects to be abandoned as a result of an independent strategic review of its infrastructure investment program. The review found the cost of the A$120 billion, ten-year program had blown out by $32.8 billion, half of which was in projects not yet under construction. But the flaws in national infrastructure planning go much deeper than the question of whether or how projects are listed on a spreadsheet, and how much their costs blow out.

Nov 16, 2023 | tolerance.ca | Jago Dodson

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