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Ken Henry

This Month

Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry.

Taxing fossil fuels better than Future Made in Australia, Ken Henry says

The proposal backs a similar fossil fuel export tax on commodities such as coal and gas put forward by former Hawke Labor government advisers Ross Garnaut and Rod Sims.

  • John Kehoe

September

Productivity Commission chairwoman Danielle Wood last week admitted that economists have lost power in policy debates.

How business and economists can become relevant again

A central problem is that good economic policies have not been well communicated and have often been debated in an echo chamber of elites.

  • John Kehoe

August

Welcome to the nature positive investing movement

Institutional investors see natural capital as the next force in corporate governance, with big implications for companies growing and selling food.

  • James Eyers

June

Federal Treasury office building.

Treasury is addicted to income tax to fund spending

Virtually everyone is protected by the government from inflation eroding their real incomes, except the humble wage earner.

  • John Kehoe

May

Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, author of the 2010 tax reform report, says the inertia of the past 15 years is an intergenerational tragedy.

Tax inertia pushes budget towards a black hole

Redesigning the tax system against the principles of fairness, efficiency, sustainability and coherence would deliver us all with an economic dividend.

  • Cherelle Murphy
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April

Outgoing OECD tax executive David Bradbury is returning to Australia.

Former Labor minister calls for major tax shake-up

The nation “relies too much on personal income tax and corporate income tax” and “there are limits to the sustainability of that”, the OECD’s tax official and former Labor minister David Bradbury says.

  • John Kehoe and Tom McIlroy
“The nature repair task is absolutely enormous, and so is the carbon challenge,” says Ken Henry.

Henry demands billions for nature repair market

The economist wants a public fund to spur corporate involvement in “nature-positive” land protection.

  • Jacob Greber
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has rebuffed calls for a “foundational” review of state-federal spending responsibilities.

States back demands for tax reform review

State and territories have swung their weight behind a Ken Henry-led push to review and overhaul a “mess” of state and federal spending responsibilities

  • Samantha Hutchinson, Tom McIlroy, Tom Rabe and Simon Evans
Ken Henry, right, says politicians like Jim Chalmers must avoid a “tragedy” on tax reform.

Tax review to avoid an ‘intergenerational tragedy’

Incremental change is a waste of time. Ken Henry says someone has to grab this thing and get on with it.

  • The AFR View
Ken Henry says business investment in Australia has been at “terribly, terribly low” recessionary levels for years.

‘Young people have been screwed’ on tax: former Treasury boss

Ken Henry has warned the social compact with workers shouldering a rising tax burden faces an “existential crisis”, unless reformers can persuade the public for major changes.

  • Updated
  • John Kehoe

February

Joe Walker, who runs a podcast (formerly called the Jolly Swagman) and snagged a 4.5 hour interview with Ken Henry earlier this year. He has clocked up 150 episodes including big names like historian William Dalrymple, Yanis Varoufakis, Noam Chomsky, and Canadian philosopher Cheryl Misak.

The 4½-hour podcast you’re missing out on

Spotify says Gen Z want shorter podcast episodes and more lighthearted content, but that hasn’t stopped others listening to 4.5-hour epics featuring Ken Henry.

  • Gus McCubbing

October 2023

The work on what tax policy changes need to be made in Australia has already largely been done – in 2010 by the Henry Review and in 2015 via Re-think.

Time to walk the tax reform talk

The High Court’s rejection of Victoria’s road tax and its threat to states’ revenue puts pressure on the federal government to step into the reform breach.

  • Michelle de Niese

September 2023

Ross Garnaut

Ken Henry too ‘boffinish’, CEOs overpaid, says Ross Garnaut

“[Henry] came up with an approach to rent that was theoretically elegant, but no one understood it. And he hadn’t talked to me beforehand.”

  • Michael Bleby

August 2023

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Ken Henry has a dire warning on this forgotten issue

Ken Henry’s environmental warnings are arguably more dire, more imminent, more urgent, more troublesome and a great deal less hypothetical than the need to address a gradually shifting tax base.

  • Phillip Coorey
Former Treasury boss Ken Henry’s stinging “intergenerational tragedy” warning last week captured people’s attention.

The penny has finally dropped on income tax burden

There are at least three achievable ways to alleviate the intergenerational inequities in the tax system to take pressure off workers and not harm economic growth.

  • John Kehoe
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Ken Henry has warned the government against over-relying on income tax.

Reliance on income tax an ‘intergenerational tragedy’: Ken Henry

The ex-Treasury boss says the dependence on personal tax is highly unfair on the young, and company taxes need to be cut to boost Australia’s competitiveness.

  • Michael Read
Ken Henery: “Australia’s political leadership does not have a respectable legacy in dealing with climate change.”

Energy transition to ‘reshape bank balance sheets’: Ken Henry

In an Australian Conservation Foundation report scoring the big banks on net-zero targets, the former NAB chairman said lenders should not be passive actors.

  • James Eyers

May 2023

Housing demand is linked to population growth.

The housing and migration debate misses one big failure

Unless major policy changes are made to housing supply, people will feel the strains of a larger population and not share in the economic benefits.

  • John Kehoe
Ken Henry tells the Tax Institute that he believes his 2010 recommendations for reforming tax on the super system are still the most appropriate.

Liberals might need to dissolve coalition with Nationals, warns Ken Henry

Former treasury secretary says the party should ignore Australia’s extremist fringes and focus instead on winning mainstream votes from the centre.

  • Gus McCubbing

April 2023

Helen Rosamond leaves the District Court in Sydney on Wednesday.

Helen Rosamond’s fate to be decided in two months

Helen Rosamond is accused of defrauding NAB millions of dollars by allegedly sending falsified and inflated invoices; Greens leader Adam Bant claims renters are leaving the major parties’ right under their noses. How the day unfolded.

  • Updated
  • Gus McCubbing and Campbell Kwan

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/kenneth-ross-henry-3y1