On August 28-29 the School of Economics at the University of Adelaide is hosting a workshop on “Federal Relations and Tax Reform” at the National Wine Centre. The workshop will focus on the operation of fiscal equalization systems and broader questions of taxation within federal systems, and taxation reform of especially interest to States and Territories, including to the GST.
The workshop has been organized with input from SA Treasury and will have a diverse audience of academics, policy makers, and practitioners. The keynote speakers will be Saul Eslake (Corinna Economic Advisory, vice-Chancellor’s fellow University of Tasmania), Michael Smart (University of Toronto) and Sean Dougherty, OECD Network on Fiscal Relations. There will be fourteen other presentations by leading experts over the two days, ending with a panel session on prioritising the reform agenda.
The subjects covered include:
Challenges and opportunities of federalism in Australia
- Federal fiscal relations: Sean Dougherty
- Managing the national fisc under federalism: Bob Gregory
- Public spending and the exchange rate: Moslehi Solmaz
Horizontal fiscal equalisation in theory and practice
- What should the Grants Commission equalise: Chris Murphy; Alan Fenna
- Incentives for reform under fiscal equalisation: Neil Warren
Tax reform generally
- Experience at the State level: David Reynolds
- Effects at the State level: John Madden
- Alcohol taxes: Glenys Byrne
GST: Effects of reforming the base
- On quantum of revenue: Danielle Wood; Mathias Sinning
- On the economic consequences for states and regions: James Giesecke
Property taxation
- Reform of property taxation itself: Brendan Coates
- Value capture: Peter Abelson
- Transition from conveyance duty: John Freebairn
Further information on the workshop is available here.
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