Disagree, this is not bad news, but rather, forces we taxpayers to look at state governments and their now largely superfluous role in any modern United Australia!

Their role!? Able to be completely replicated by a combination of Federal and local governments. Without significantly increasing the staffing requirements of either!

Nothing that often crisis-riddled or comprehensively corrupt (middlemen) state governments currently provide, cannot be done at vastly less cost, by the aforementioned.

Particularly if accompanied by quite massive, regional autonomy!

This now long overdue reform for a modern Australia, which needs state governments and the absolutely unnecessary punitive cost on society, like a hole in the head!

And should be accompanied b genuine tax reform. that simply has to be rolled out as a single, stand-alone and unavoidable flat tax of just 15%!

The less well off completely protected by a generous increase in the tax threshold.

I get that the ANCHORED IN THE PAST, Author is consumed by self-survival interests and little else, other than cramming more and more folk into smaller and smaller spaces!? And therefore can give little credence to his pleadings for MORE MONEY!

When what the nation needs is the 100 annual billions we could save with the above proposed rationalised reform And by the new rivers of revenue the proposed tax reform would add to the nation.

And by the simple expediency of closing all current tax loophole and avoidance, particularly that by massive multinationals that together with local avoidance, are escaping with, I believe, somewhere north of 64 annual billions
Alan B.

This is bad news for State Governments who have increasingly relied on property taxes to fund a growing list of infrastructure promises.
Ross Elliiott,
Shouldn't they be managing rather than just put up taxes ? Why are they in those jobs if they can't manage ??

A broader land tax is the answer, which the State Governments have ignored, but now may have to face up to. South Australia tested "the water" in 2015, but withdrew after a storm of protest from property investors. There have been several studies by the Grattan Institute , John A. McLaren's paper in 2014, entitled, "A uniform land tax in Australia: what is the potential for this to be a reality post the 'Henry Tax Review"? and the University of Sydney in March 2019 produced a report, "Squeezing Services" which noted that:
The potential revenue growth from land tax reform is very much larger than from any other source.
Land tax is the third largest source of State tax revenue, currently generating less than half of the revenue arising from either stamp duties or payroll tax. Land tax is payable at $100 plus 1.6% per year on the ‘unimproved’ value of certain types of land. The unimproved value excludes the value of houses and other
modifications. Tax liabilities are incurred on land above a certain threshold,currently $692,000."
Prosper Australia has advocated for changes to be made to make taxation more equitable than it now is because of the heavy burden of stamp duty being paid by young people and those who because of job movement have to relocate. It would appear that our State Governments are spell bound by inertia and fear of the public backlash from long-term home owners. However, a solution could be found if the three tiers of government were prepared to work together instead of against each other- a rare event in this large country with a small population! As the Fisher Government introduced a Federal Land Tax in 1915, which worked well until the Menzies-Fadden government abolished it in 1953, we must realise that short-term popularity by governments often leads to long term loss of revenue and angst between the three tiers in Australia, where very little agreement has been reached on the most basic problems of river water and taxes.

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. Increasing population sees more properties being created to house it. The revenue from stamp duty serves not only to keep some check on the property market but also to fund infrastructure for that increasing population.