Richard Eccleston

Globalisation and the Dilemmas of Income Taxation in Australia

Over the past two decades there has been a worldwide fall in statutory corporate tax (CT) rates. Focusing on Australia, this article establishes three empirical facts which challenge much of the existing literature. First, CT competition was the crucial driving force behind CT cuts. Second, policy makers had to abandon tax‐related investment incentives in order to pay for lower CT rates. This broadening of the CT base is costly, because it potentially disadvantages domestic firms and may, over the longer term, erode the CT base. Third, CT cuts have put pressure on the personal income tax base, as low corporate rates provide tax avoidance opportunities for high‐income earners.

The Henry Tax Review, Cartel Parties and the Reform Capacity of the Australian State

The Henry Tax Review is a work in progress, but it has already advanced sufficiently to constitute an important case study of state capacity in Australia. Using the Henry Tax Review as a case study, this paper sheds light on the question of whether the national political system is capable of devising and implementing long-term reforms. Whilst specific policy failures inevitably have a contingent dimension in the form of poor strategy and leadership or unfavourable economic conditions, the paper discusses the erosion of institutional and relational structures which, arguably, has diminished systemic political capacity. This is tantamount to a structural weakening of state capacity in Australia, a development which has the potential to erode the potential of any government to enact significant strategic policy change.

Pathologies in International Policy Transfer: The Case of the OECD Tax Transparency Initiative

Abstract The importance of international organizations to the development and diffusion of international policy norms is widely recognized but is increasingly tempered by an appreciation of the pathologies of policy transfer. Using a case study of the OECD’s campaign to promote transparency in global tax affairs, this paper identifies a new and relatively distinctive form of dysfunctional policy transfer. Specifically it argues that international organizations face bureaucratic incentives to promote weak or lowest common denominator standards in order to maximize their prospects of brokering successful international agreements. However the paper also notes that while international organizations may have a short-term interest in promoting weak standards, their longer-term legitimacy is often tied to the effectiveness of the standards they promote. It is argued that this dynamic often leads to incremental policy change.

The OECD and global economic governance

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has enjoyed a high profile in world affairs for almost 50 years with its origins dating back to the original Bretton Woods club of institutions. Despite this reputation as one of the world’s most pre-eminent think tanks, policy forums and sources of comparative economic and other policy data, the governance capacity and influence of the OECD remains somewhat ambiguous and contested, often being overshadowed by the triumvirate of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/ World Trade Organization (WTO). To use Richard Woodward’s (2009) apt analogy, if there were Oscars for contributions to global governance, the OECD may not have won many lead actor awards, but it would have won a horde of gongs for best support performance. Significantly, until recent contributions, such as those under review in this essay2 , there has been remarkably little scholarly research focusing on the internal deliberations of the OECD3, the organisation’s evolving role in global governance, and its likely influence and role in post-GFC (global financial crisis) regulatory architecture.

Beyond the Blame Game: Political Strategies for State Funding Reform

There is growing concern that intergovernmental financial relations in the Australian federation are becoming increasingly acrimonious and dysfunctional. This paper argues that it is necessary to analyse State funding as a whole, including the critical relationship between State-level taxation and its reform and the broader Commonwealth Grants Commission regime, if we are to establish a system of State funding which is financially sustainable, promotes economic efficiency and is broadly congruent with established norms of Australian federalism. Above all, based on international experience, we argue Commonwealth leadership is required to achieve this goal. We conclude with a case study concerning resource taxation which demonstrates how the Commonwealth could provide leadership using a ‘bundled’ approach to policy reform. It is argued that such an approach has the potential to alleviate wider intergovernmental conflicts which currently afflict Australian federalism.

The Howard Government, Capital Taxation and the Limits of Redistribution?

Whilst often being overshadowed by debate surrounding personal income and consumption taxes, the Howard government has also devoted significant resources to reviewing and reforming business and capital taxation. This paper provides an overview of the Ralph Review of Business Taxation and the Howard governments mixed record when it came to the implementation of the Ralph reforms. Having documented the subsequent changes in corporate income, capital gains and superannuation taxation, the paper analyses their economic impact. The paper concludes with an assessment of the longer term political significance of these changes and asks whether the concessional taxation of capital that has occurred under the Howard government represents a fundamental shift in the basis of Australian taxation.

The tax reform agenda in Australia

This paper applies concepts developed in the Policy Agendas Project (PAP) literature to an analysis of Australian tax policy over the post war period. It argues that a major turning point in the Australian tax policy agenda occurred during the second term of the Hawke Government (1984-87). Beyond this turning point, and despite the fierce partisan conflict concerning tax policy over the past two decades, there has been remarkaly little difference between Australias two major parties at the level of substantive policy content. The Australian tax policy agenda over the post war period can be characterised by remarkable policy continuity punctuated by a period of change in the mid 1980s when structural change in the international political economy precipitated unprecedented domestic liberalisation.

Delivering Public Services: Locality, Learning and Reciprocity in Place Based Practice

Policymakers across myriad jurisdictions are grappling with the challenge of complex policy problems. Multi-faceted, complex, and seemingly intractable, ‘wicked’ problems have exhausted the repertoire of the standard policy approaches. In response, governments are increasingly looking for new options, and one approach that has gained significant scholarly interest, along with increasing attention from practitioners, is ‘place-based’ solutions. This paper surveys conceptual aspects of this approach. It describes practices in comparable jurisdictions – the United Kingdom, the EU, and the United States. And it explores efforts over the past decade to ‘localise’ Indigenous services. It sketches the governance challenge in migrating from top-down or principal-agent arrangements towards place-based practice. The paper concludes that many of the building blocks for this shift already exist but that these need to be re-oriented around ‘learning’. Funding and other administrative protocols may also ultimately need to be redefined.

Australia's Future Fund: a future beyond the GFC

Australias Future Fund (FF) was created in 2006 as a long-term savings fund designed to meet the Australian Governments future public service pension liabilities. With the onset of the financial crisis, few commentators thought the Australian Government would have the capacity or interest to continue investing in the FF. However, in the context of Australias rapid, commodity-driven recovery from the crisis there is a growing case that the FF should play a central role in a new fiscal policy framework designed to manage the risks associated with the current resources boom. The paper explores these arguments and the politics associated with implementing such a framework and in so doing highlights the political constraints associated with implementing SWFs in advanced democracies.

Intergovernmental financial relations in an age of austerity: implications for the future of federalism

The financial crisis that first disrupted global markets in 2008 may have been the defining global socio-economic event of the last decade, but the analysis in this volume suggests that the crisis and its aftermath is but one factor, albeit a significant one, shaping the evolution of federal systems. In this sense, this volume affirms existing research on comparative federalism that highlights the complex and particularistic nature of many federal settlements and their evolution over time (see, for example, Benz and Broschek 2013; Fenna 2014; Riker 1964; Stepan 1999). Indeed, the cases within this volume will disappoint those anticipating that the impact of the financial crisis on federal systems over time can be explained in terms of a handful of key variables. However, it accords with the growing recognition in federalism scholarship and institutional analysis more generally of the complex nature of social change and the way in which it is influenced by the socio-economic interdependence between states as well as the cultural, political and economic forces within national borders. This growing recognition of the complexity of federal dynamics has resulted in a research environment in which formal, deductive methods are losing favour (Hueglin 2011).