New South Wales, Australia
Australian state with one of the world's longest-running land value taxes, levied since 1895 — part of Australia's strong historical Georgist tradition.
Overview
New South Wales, Australia, has levied a land value tax since 1895, giving it one of the longest continuous histories of land taxation anywhere. Australia more broadly has a deep Georgist tradition: George's ideas arrived early and influentially, and several Australian states and local councils have long taxed land values (often rating on unimproved land value).
The System
NSW's state land tax is assessed on the unimproved capital value of land, with the principle that only the value of the site — not the buildings — is taxed. Local councils in parts of Australia have also rated on land value rather than total property value. The system has endured for over a century, demonstrating the administrative durability of land valuation at scale.
Significance
Australia, and NSW in particular, provides a long-run real-world demonstration that recurrent land value taxation is stable, administrable, and politically survivable — and it remains a center of Georgist research and advocacy through organisations like Prosper Australia.
See Also
Sources
- Robert Andelson (ed., 2001), Land-Value Taxation Around the World — Australia chapters (comparative reference).
- Prosper Australia — research on Australian land taxation.