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Premium residential solar feed-in tariffs have come under considerable scrutiny in Australia over the past 12 months following a sharp rise in the uptake of subsidised PV units and subsidy cost blow-outs. Using New South Wales data, Nelson, Simshauser and Kelley (2011) demonstrated that the inherent design of premium 'gross' feed-in tariffs are regressive in nature and required reform. Since the publication of that article in Economic Analysis & Policy (September 2011 edition), feed-in tariff policies have been substantially wound back in all Australian jurisdictions except Queensland. In this article, we examine the 'net' feed-in tariff in Queensland and similarly find it to be a regressive form of taxation. We also examine the so-called 'merit order effect' - a purported 'economic benefit' arising from premium feed-in tariffs. However, the evidence is clear that merit order effects must, by definition, be transient and above all, are not welfare enhancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gambling is now a large revenue source for many governments due to its ease of implementation, popular appeal and the high real tax rate it can bear (up to 40%). It is often promoted by spending on ‘good causes’ designated as ‘additional’ to existing government activity. This article examines the UK's National Lottery and Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) in Queensland, Australia and shows that, in both cases, gambling taxes are often diverted into education, health and social and economic development and therefore potentially substitute for taxation raised elsewhere in the economy. In addition, there is evidence that gambling's taxation implications (against income) are doubly regressive, taking disproportionately from lower income groups and giving to those better off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the implementation of the New Right policies in Australia, along with their significance to the country's future. The implementation has not been as rapid and wide as in most other advanced capitalist societies. New Right's assault on the Welfare State involves regressive taxation reform, reduced expenditure, and comprehensive commercialization of social welfare, health, housing as well as radical antiunion industrial relations reform. Most New Zealanders observed that the single greatest attack on their living standards since the Great Depression. It has been stressed that the media fails to present critic views though it relays the official government. Labor government tends to be more adept at attacking working class' living standards than the conservatives.