A cycling mishap earlier in the day couldn’t stop now-hobbled economist Ross Garnaut’s dinner address on Thursday night, where for 90 minutes he dissed ex-Treasury head Ken Henry’s mining tax proposal, plugged his own favourite taxes and dabbled in the national sport that is Qantas bashing.

The former adviser to Bob Hawke was speaking at the 132nd anniversary dinner of Prosper Australia at Melbourne’s Kelvin Club, held in commemoration of Henry George, a late 19th-century economist who advocated a single tax on land values as a way to ensure a more productive and just society.