Comments for John Humphreys

Comment on Australian election minor party guide by Peter Whelan

Peter Whelan — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:31:29 +0000

Thanks for that John. Good summary. In response to Ben White, both LDP candidates in last year’s SA by elections gained around 15% of the vote, in Ramsay and Port Adelaide. Previously the best individual seat LDP vote (just more than 5%) was for Ben Buckley in seat of Gippsland.

Comment on Australian election minor party guide by Ben White

Ben White — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 11:30:38 +0000

Some good research there John, my mail is that the Sex Party are doing well with people that are upset with the ALP but do not want to go across to the Greens and see them as an ideal group to lodge a protest vote with.

In the 2012 Port Adelaide By Election in South Australia, the Liberal Democrat Party, candidate Stephen Humble did very well and out pollled the Greens by over 2+% of the vote. I am told that this was their best ever effort in an individual seat. This is in a very safe ALP seat that has never fallen to the Liberals, nor ever will. Personally I do think South Australia is the most likely place for the LDP to do well as the locals seem to connect more with the parties values and points of difference.

Comment on Australian election minor party guide by Martin Spencer

Martin Spencer — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:24:55 +0000

Pirate Party: You might have mentioned that the Pirate Party is particularly concerned with promoting online freedoms.

Senator Online: “online surveys about each topic” sounds a little crappier than what they actually propose: regulated one-person one-vote online polls on each piece of legislation to come to the senate.

[JOHN: I took your advice regarding the Pirate Party]

Comment on The middle ground on climate policy by TerjeP (say tay-a)

TerjeP (say tay-a) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:53:56 +0000

I think the principle is right but what would it look like in practice and would we find that palatable.

Comment on The middle ground on climate policy by 2dogs

2dogs — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:51:15 +0000

Its actually the Left that would strike down such a proposal, usually insisting that Australia “must show leadership” – conditional legislation would not do this. Many skeptics would be quite happy, based on the track record of inactivity by the international bodies.

The only real compromise is nuclear power – on this issue, it has always been the second choice of both sides. That should qualify it is the compromise of choice, but the debate has become too polarised to achieve that outcome.

I am always dismayed at the Left’s opposition to this compromise. While defending scientific concensus so fiercely on the global warming matter itself, they so quickly abandon it to attack nuclear power when it is offered as an alternative.

Comment on Australia’s carbon tax and global temperatures by Milton Von Smith

Milton Von Smith — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 05:28:59 +0000

Let’s take the modified Quiggin as being correct. Bolt is wrong by 0.00086 degrees, whilst the naive Quiggin estimate is wrong by 0.0189 degrees. So, as usual, Bolt is closer to the truth than Quiggin.

Comment on Australia’s carbon tax and global temperatures by Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 02:26:40 +0000

One point: all of the estimates are orders of magnitude below what can be measured. We may as well be arguing about the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin.

Comment on Australia’s income tax rates by MundiMundi

MundiMundi — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 22:41:32 +0000

Also, as another example of our absurd tax system for a person earning exactly $80k without private health insurance, there EMTR is technically a staggering 80,034%!

Comment on Australia’s income tax rates by MundiMundi

MundiMundi — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 22:34:40 +0000

Nice job!
Now we just have to factor in ftb a/b, parent pension/new start and rent assistance for typical situations (single/couple with/without kids). I doupt a regression that small matters once you factor in the loss of welfare payments, which send the emtr’s sky high, plus other work related expenses that are not tax deductible, such as travel to your job. That would probably be a much bigger factor on incentives.

Also it’s worth noting that path withhold does not give all of lito, so the emtr over the short term (ie what people see in their pay) is even worse than what you have posted. It would be interesting to compare the marginal rate between incomes on the payg withholding tables.

Comment on Climate change “action” by Australia’s carbon tax and global temperatures « John Humphreys

Australia’s carbon tax and global temperatures « John Humphreys — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:01:09 +0000

[...] if the carbon tax is responsible for all of the reduced emissions, that implies that all other carbon policy achieves nothing — despite costing about $1 billion each year. It is doubtful that this is [...]