new tax on your own home gains

http://www.theage.com.au/national/tax-the-home-say-ceos-20110225-1b8u7.html





Tax the home, say CEOs Stuart Washington
February 26, 2011

A NEW tax on owner-occupied homes to arrest soaring house prices is among extraordinary measures proposed by five of the country's most admired chief executives to address the dark side of the resources boom.

The chief executives said impacts from the boom, including higher cost of living, a shortage of staff and other industries withering, are Australia's greatest challenges.

Among the five executives named today at the top of the annual BusinessDay survey of most-admired chief executives is CSL chief Brian McNamee.

Advertisement: Story continues below Mr McNamee said his global biotech business had challenges hiring the best and brightest in Melbourne because of the boom driving a higher cost of living. He said there was a need to impose a capital gains tax on owner-occupied homes to cap house prices.

''Capital gains tax free on housing is poor policy because fundamentally it over-encourages people to invest in their home,'' Dr McNamee said.

The chief executive of gold miner Newcrest, Ian Smith, called for consideration of radical proposals including:

?? Following a Swedish model of government support for secondary industries to remove a disproportionate focus on the resources industry.

?? Overhauling Australia's education system to fix a projected shortfall of 1700 mining engineers over the next five years.

Other chief executives who voiced concerns about the boom were Origin's Grant King, Cochlear's Chris Roberts and Wesfarmers' Richard Goyder. After the Henry tax review last year, the government ruled out changes to capital gains tax.